The past 24 hours have delivered the full Shohei Ohtani experience: a home run at the plate on Tuesday followed by dominance on the mound on Wednesday.
The back-to-back National League MVP took advantage of having the next two days off from hitting, throwing a season-high 105 pitches over seven scoreless innings in which he allowed just four hits with eight strikeouts, giving the Dodgers bullpen a much-needed reprieve in their 4-0 win over the San Francisco Giants. The victory snapped a four-game losing streak for the Dodgers.
Ohtani’s ERA is now 0.82 — the best in the big leagues — through his seven starts this season.
Ohtani’s sweeper was particularly effective throughout the outing as he used it for half of his strikeouts on the night and drew 17 total strikes on it for a called strike + whiff rate of 41%.
“The sweeper felt pretty good,” Ohtani told reporters postgame through interpreter Will Ireton. “Even if the hitter is sitting on it, it’s not necessarily something that I don’t throw. But overall, just the quality of it was pretty good.”
The Dodgers offense also broke out of its recent woes to give Ohtani some run support. It started in the third inning with Mookie Betts launching a 414-foot moonshot that landed halfway up the left field pavilion seats off of a fastball down the middle from Giants starter Robbie Ray. It was Betts’ first home run since returning from the IL on Monday. That homer was a follow-up to Santiago Espinal’s solo shot, his first of the year.
Kyle Tucker later scored on an RBI single from Teoscar Hernández, who then came home himself on a sac fly by Alex Call in the bottom of the fourth.
Here’s Ohtani’s final line from Wednesday’s 4-0 win over the Giants:
Shohei Ohtani pitching stats vs. Giants
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Shohei Ohtani pitching stats, Dodgers vs. Giants highlights
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