Shohei Ohtani hit a leadoff home run and threw five scoreless innings in historical outing for Dodgers.
The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the San Diego Padres in a 4-0 victory on Wednesday in their series finale. It was one for the ages thanks to two-way sensation Shohei Ohtani, as the designated hitter and pitcher hit a leadoff home run and proceeded to pitch five scoreless innings in the win. The win pushed the Dodgers to take a 1.5 game lead in the National League West over the rival Padres.
The performance by Ohtani was historic. Only a few players in MLB history have batted leadoff while starting on the mound. None of those players had ever homered in that spot. Then came Ohtani – who has now done it twice. His first was in Game 4 of the 2025 National League Championship Series.
It ended up as a dominant game for Ohtani, though his time on the mound was a bit of a rockier start. He retired his first nine batters, but required 52 pitches in order to do so, with his velocity notably dropping by the fifth inning. He allowed the bases to get loaded in the fifth with one out but escaped thanks to a double play. He threw 88 pitches in total, which was his shortest start this campaign, but it was enough to drop him to a 0.73 ERA. Ohtani is only behind Fernando Valenzuela with the lowest ERA in eight starts as a Dodgers pitcher.
To read more about the historical outing for the electric two-way star, here is the full story from Dodgers Roundtable writer Adrian Medina.
Los Angeles prepped for this by keeping him out of the lineup in his last three turns in the rotation on start days but figured out that the physical effects might not hit until a day after. So, they swapped Ohtani and Emmet Sheehan in the rotation to align with the start coming right before their Thursday off day. The Dodgers will keep managing his workload with care, especially after one of the worst slumps of his career as of recent.
It was enough to question the viability of his two-way role at his age, but Ohtani has figured out how to separate the pitching from the hitting, and that his ability to do so will continue to silence doubters even if one side isn’t as productive. That wasn’t the case at all in Wednesday’s victory.
