Shohei Ohtani homers, tosses six no-hit innings in win over Rockies

The two runs in the first were plenty for Ohtani on the mound, as although he allowed a pair of two-out walks over his first two innings, the Rockies went scoreless through their first go-around. Colorado to lead off the fourth inning with a pair of baserunners, as T.J. Rumfield walked before Hunter Goodman was drilled by a pitch. A fielder’s choice from Troy Johnston moved Rumfield to third base, and Willi Castro drove him in on a groundout.

The Dodgers would get that run right back in the bottom half of the fourth, as Alex Call followed up Hyeseong Kim and Will Smith with the Dodgers’ third straight two-out hit. While Kim scored on the play, Smith was cut down at the plate trying to extend the lead to three.

Ohtani was able to complete six innings after tossing just five in his last start in San Diego, and although he held Colorado hitless, he put five runners on base as he walked four along with the hit batsman. While Ohtani does have seven different pitches in his repertoire, he relied heavily on his fastball and sweeper, accounting for 88 of his 99 pitches on the night and six of his seven strikeouts. He tossed his curveball, sinker and splitter a total of 11 times while completely ditching his cutter and slider altogether.

After allowing the one run over six innings, Ohtani’s ERA now sits at 0.83 over his first nine starts on the year, besting Fernando Valenzuela’s 0.91 ERA he had over his first nine starts in his legendary 1981 season.

Will Klein followed Ohtani with a scoreless inning with the potential no-hit bid intact, but a two-out single from Tyler Freeman against Tanner Scott in the top of the eighth ended the bid with just four outs to go.

Andy Pages added some insurance in the bottom of the eighth with his third home run in his last four games to give the Dodgers a three-run lead. Pages’ 13 home runs on the year are now the most on the team while he is the first player this season to reach the 50 RBI plateau.