The Los Angeles Dodgers continue to ride the wave of Shohei Ohtani's two-way spectacles 

Following a comeback win on Tuesday, the Dodgers secured the series win on Wednesday night with a 4-0 shutout against the San Diego Padres. 

They have won seven of their last eight games. 

For just the third time all year, Ohtani would be hitting the same day of his start. 

Dave Roberts noted in the pregame that he ultimately decided to have Ohtani act as a two-way player due to his recent production at the plate. It also helps that the Dodgers have a scheduled off day on Thursday, plus his additonal two days off last week. 

Ohtani would lower his sub-one ERA even further as he notched five scoreless innings and picked up four strikeouts against the Padres on Wednesday night. 

His ERA now stands at 0.73. 

Ohtani kicked off his outing at Petco Park perfectly, retiring the first nine Padres hitters in order. 

After giving up his first walk to Fernando Tatis Jr. for San Diego's first base runner of the game, Gavin Sheets would knock in the Padres' first hit two batters later. 

Ohtani managed to escape a traffic-filled inning with runners on first and second by inducing back-to-back flyouts from Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts. 

His final inning of work (fifth inning) was a stressfull way to end his outing. 

After giving up back-to-back base knocks to lead off the inning, a walk to Freddy Fermin loaded the bases full of Padres, and only one out. 

That prompted a mound visit with Mark Prior and the rest of the Dodgers' infield, including Mookie Betts, being the last player to give Ohtani words of encouragement.

All it took was one pitch to get Tatis Jr. to ground into an inning ending double play. 

Once Betts' throw from second base hit the back of Freddie Freeman's glove at first base, Ohtani let out a roar of emotion. 

Roberts said that he's never seen that type of emotion coming from Ohtani. 

Even with Ohtani navigating five scoreless innings through the Padres lineup, he admitted in his postgame interview that he entered this start with uncertainty. 

“A lot of uncertainty coming into this outing because the feel wasn’t great," Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. "The results were good, but as you saw, the process wasn’t that great.”

Roberts noted the inconsistencies as well during his postagame presser. 

"I think today, I just saw the overall body. It just didn't seem like he had as much reserve or stuff to work with today," Roberts said. 

"I can't really pinpoint it today." 

Still, he commended Ohtani's efforts to produce quality innings, and said that this outing was "case and point" on why the Dodgers will continue to be mindful of Ohtani's workload as a two-way player. 

Of course, it wouldn't be an Ohtani two-way start day without him doing something at the plate. 

On the first pitch of the game from Padres starter Randy Vásquez, Ohtani launched his eighth home run to deep center field. 

That ball had an exit velocity of 111.3 mph. 

That lead-off bomb from Ohtani was just the second time in MLB history that a starting pitcher led off a game with a home run. 

From then on, Teoscar Hernández would hit a sacrifice fly in the top of the second — accompanied with a moon shot in the ninth — and a Kyle Tucker RBI single were the runs needed for a win. 

With the win, the Dodgers improve to a 31-19 record and take the first series meeting against the Padres. 

Looking ahead, the Dodgers have a Thursday off day before traveling to Milwaukee to face the Brewers for a three-game series. 

The probables for the weekend series kick off with Justin Wrobleski toeing the rubber in the series opener, with Roki Sasaki following on Saturday, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto starts in the series closer. 

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