Fans who went to Dodger Stadium for another Shohei Ohtani bobblehead night got to enjoy the best pitching performance this season from the man himself.
The Los Angeles Dodgers ace got his first win of the season — and of his Dodgers career — and struck out nine Cincinnati Reds batters in a 5-1 victory, completing a three-game series sweep. It was the first time in 11 starts this season he finished the fifth inning, as the Dodgers continue to ramp him up as cautiously as possible.
It was Ohtani’s first win since Aug. 9, 2023. He allowed his only run on a solo homer from Noelvi Marte in the third inning. On offense, he went 1-for-5 with a run scored, though he finished his night with a ball to the warning track.
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The win pushes the Dodgers’ lead in the NL West to two games after the San Diego Padres’ 4-3 loss to the Seattle Mariners earlier Wednesday.
The performance was a nice bounce back after Ohtani’s two roughest starts of the season. The Dodgers waited to stretch him past four innings until his Aug. 13 start, but he didn’t get that far on a night that saw him allow five hits and four earned runs in a loss to his old Los Angeles Angels team.
Ohtani’s next start was even worse, with the Colorado Rockies notching nine hits and five earned runs at Coors Field before he left with a thigh issue. It was a discouraging downturn for a pitcher who had, on a per-inning basis, looked as dominant as ever in his first season as a pitcher with the Dodgers. He entered that Angels start with a 2.37 ERA and 25 strikeouts in 19 innings, but took the mound Wednesday with a 4.61 ERA.
Ohtani and the Dodgers responded with an adjustment.
Shohei Ohtani used one pitch very differently in his best start of the season. (Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
(Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Shohei Ohtani did something new with his curveball
Ohtani’s curveball is usually a complementary piece of his arsenal, which has always relied more on his four-seam fastball, splitter and sweeper to keep hitters off balance. He has never thrown the curve more than 8.4% of the time in a season, per Baseball Savant, and had thrown only 11 in 439 pitches this season (2.5%). He didn’t use the pitch at all until Aug. 6.
Against the Reds, however, Ohtani threw his curveball 23 times in 87 pitches, accounting for 26% of his offerings. That’s not just a season high, it’s career high, going back to his time with the Angels.
It was an effective pitch Wednesday, with batters putting only one ball in play, a harmless grounder, while whiffing four times on seven swings and watching it land for a called strike six more times. Notably, he also threw the pitch an average of 3.7 mph faster than his 2025 mark entering Wednesday, indicating he and the Dodgers made a change to the actual pitch.
Time will tell if Ohtani continues to use his curveball this way, but that’s everything you want in a pitch (in a very small sample size). With the Dodgers saying they don’t plan to have Ohtani go past five innings in a start until the postseason, he should have a full month of limited starts to figure things out.
As for Ohtani’s bobblehead night, it was once again a packed house. In less than two seasons with the right-hander aboard, the Dodgers have already given away their fifth bobblehead featuring him, with a sixth planned for Sept. 10.
Fans still lined up well before game time to guarantee they received the collector’s item, though they had little reason to. The Dodgers explicitly say “All fans in attendance with a valid ticket will receive a bobblehead” for Ohtani bobblehead nights on their website.
Since the start of 2024, the Dodgers have given away a bobblehead of Ohtani at bat, Ohtani and his dog Decoy, Ohtani receiving his NL MVP award, Ohtani stealing a base (in reference to his 50/50 season), Ohtani finishing his swing (the other half of his 50/50 season) and, soon, Ohtani pitching.
That volume reflects just how important the two-way star is to the team, on both the field and in the financial ledger.
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