“As a pitcher, you know when it\u2019s a crucial moment,” Ohtani explained through his interpreter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The scoreless frame lowered Ohtani\u2019s ERA on the year to 0.73 \u2014 the lowest mark for a starting pitcher through the first eight appearances of a season since Jacob deGrom in 2021 (0.71) \u2014 and helped the Dodgers finish off a 4-0 win to stay alone atop the NL West.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here are my takeaways.<\/p>\n
1. For The First Time In Nearly A Month, Shohei Ohtani Does It All<\/strong><\/p>\n (Photo by Orlando Ramirez\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n Entering this week, Ohtani had just one hit all year in games in which he started on the mound. He hadn\u2019t been in the lineup at all in four of his last five pitching starts as the Dodgers attempted to manage the four-time MVP\u2019s workload and give him a breather as he slumped at the plate.\u00a0<\/p>\n But with Ohtani swinging a hotter bat lately, manager Dave Roberts let the two-way star both hit and pitch Wednesday night for the first time since April 22. Immediately, that decision paid off.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ohtani went deep on the first pitch of the day from Padres starter Randy Vasquez, sending a four-seamer at the top of the zone out for a 405-foot home run. That hit alone would have been enough to earn him the win.\u00a0<\/p>\n He then took the mound in the bottom of the first and set the Padres down in order. Ohtani didn\u2019t have his best command, as evidenced by the 88 pitches he needed to get through five innings, yet he still was perfect the first time through the Padres\u2019 lineup and extended his scoreless innings streak to 16.\u00a0<\/p>\n His ERA (0.73) is now considerably lower than his OPS as a hitter (.885), a testament both to his sensational work on the mound and his improvements at the plate. He has reached base multiple times in each of his seven games and is 11-for-23 with six extra-base hits since being given back-to-back days off as a hitter on May 13-14.\u00a0<\/p>\n 2. The Padres\u2019 Top Bats Are Still Struggling \u2014 And Now Hurting<\/strong><\/p>\n (Photo by Sean M. Haffey\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n The biggest moment of Wednesday\u2019s game was an example of both Ohtani\u2019s ability to work around traffic and Tatis\u2019 continued power outage.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tatis entered his fifth-inning at-bat hitting .465 with four grand slams in his career with the bases loaded. This year, though, he\u2019s still looking for his first home run of any kind.\u00a0<\/p>\n He ranks in the 97th percentile in hard-hit rate, but he\u2019s pounding baseball into the dirt with the highest ground-ball rate of his career and has the seventh-lowest slugging percentage (.278) among all qualified MLB hitters.\u00a0<\/p>\n And he\u2019s not the only Padres star struggling mightily to start the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tatis, Jackson Merrill and Manny Machado \u2014 who homered Tuesday for his lone hit of the series \u2014all rank in the bottom 15 among qualified MLB hitters in OPS. To make matters worse, Merrill left Wednesday\u2019s game early after tweaking his back trying to make a play on Ohtani\u2019s home run.\u00a0<\/p>\n As a team, the Padres\u2019 offense ranks last in batting average and 29th in on-base percentage.\u00a0<\/p>\n 3. The Padres\u2019 Lone Win Of The Series Showed How They Got To This Point<\/strong><\/p>\n (Photo by Orlando Ramirez\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n A 1-0 Padres victory Friday, during which Michael King spun seven shutout innings to outduel World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, was a quintessential example of how they’ve jumped out to their 29-20 record despite the underperformance of their offensive stars.\u00a0<\/p>\n In that win, all it took was a solo shot from Miguel Andujar to make them victorious. Jason Adam threw a scoreless inning in the eighth, and Mason Miller closed the door in the ninth to secure his 15th save of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Padres have the fourth-best winning percentage in the National League despite scoring just three more runs this year than they\u2019ve allowed, primarily because they don\u2019t blow leads and they win close games.\u00a0<\/p>\n Miller still has not blown a save this season, though on Tuesday he suffered his first defeat in more than a year. He had gone 65 games \u2014 67 including the playoffs \u2014 without suffering a loss until a walk, an error on a pickoff attempt and a sacrifice fly from Andy Pages ended that streak. It was the first time all season that the Padres have lost a game when tied after the eighth inning.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s a credit to the supporting cast members of the Padres\u2019 lineup, the team\u2019s clutch hitting, the steady work of King (2.31 ERA) and Vasquez (2.91) in a shorthanded rotation and, most obviously, Miller and the team\u2019s shutdown bullpen that San Diego has gotten out to this start.\u00a0<\/p>\n 4. Against The League\u2019s Most Feared Bullpen, It Was The Dodgers Relievers Who Shined<\/strong><\/p>\n (Photo by Ryan Levy\/MLB Photos via Getty Images) <\/p>\n Entering this series, the Padres\u2019 bullpen received far more acclaim, led by the most dominant closer in the sport.\u00a0<\/p>\n But this week, it was the Dodgers\u2019 relievers who continued piling up zeroes.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Dodgers bullpen, which has the lowest ERA in the National League, has not allowed a run in its last eight games. Since losing Edwin D\u00edaz to an elbow issue on April 19, Dodgers relievers have the lowest ERA in the sport.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Edgardo Henriquez, Alex Vesia, Blake Treinen, Tanner Scott and Will Klein combined to throw five scoreless innings of relief to finish off a 5-4 win. One day later, three of those pitchers \u2014 Henriquez, Treinen and Klein \u2014 were back on the mound helping blank the Padres to finish off the series win.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rowan Kavner<\/a>\u00a0is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on X at\u00a0@RowanKavner<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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