LOS ANGELES — A banged-up Shohei Ohtani has allowed multiple earned runs in back-to-back starts on the mound for the first time this season.
Pitching with residual soreness in his left knee and a blister on his right middle finger that got bloodied later in the game, Ohtani gave up more than one run in an inning for the second time in a week after opening with four scoreless innings against Tampa Bay.
His knee caused him to miss a game in Chicago, and his four-start winning streak on the mound was snapped with a no-decision at Pittsburgh.
“Just part of the game,” Ohtani said through a translator. “There’s not a lot of situations where you feel 100%, so I just took it as that. It’s big that we were able to win a game like this.”
Ohtani (7-2) gave up four runs and five hits in the fifth on 26 pitches. But he responded with a 1-2-3 sixth to complete his time on the mound, and wound up with the win when the Dodgers rallied for a 5-4 victory to finish their second-ever sweep of the Rays.
“It’s just really that inning, that fifth inning, that I wasn’t really too pleased,” he said, “but aside from that the stuff was good and I felt pretty good overall.”
Ohtani has allowed eight runs (seven earned) in his past two starts after yielding just seven runs (five earned) in his first 10 starts. His ERA rose to 1.47, still second-best in the majors among pitchers with at least 50 innings.
“Obviously, we expect close to perfection out of Sho every time he goes out there. So does he,” Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing said. “But there’s no reason to worry at all.”
Ohtani was not in the starting lineup, but he batted for designated hitter Miguel Rojas in the sixth after the Dodgers regained the lead on a two-run homer by Freddie Freeman that saved Ohtani from potentially taking a loss.
He grounded out on one pitch and the Dodgers lost the DH for the rest of the game.
“I talked to (Ohtani), and he said he felt really comfortable about taking the at-bat,” manager Dave Roberts said. “If we were ahead, would I have fired that bullet? Probably less likely, but again, there isn’t much cost if he feels like he can take the at-bat, whether you’re up one or down one, or whatever.”
Offensively, Ohtani came in with five homers in his last nine games and was hitting .367 during that span.
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