LOS ANGELES–Shohei Ohtani\u00a0struck out 10 as the starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night, when he was held out of the lineup as designated hitter after getting hit by a pitch this week.<\/p>\n
His 22 swing and misses against the New York Mets were a career high with the Dodgers. He struck out the side in the sixth inning on 14 pitches in the\u00a0Dodgers\u2019 8-2 victory. The right-hander allowed one run and two hits in six innings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really good to watch him just focus on one thing,\u201d manager Dave Roberts said. \u201cJust channeling all that energy into pitching was helpful. The last couple outings I felt he was fighting himself a little bit at times, but tonight he was unusually good.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was the first time since May 28, 2021, with the Los Angeles Angels that Ohtani has not been in the batting lineup during a mound start.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn between innings felt a little longer than normal. That was really the only difference,\u201d Ohtani said through a translator. \u201cI had pretty productive time being able to spend time on the game-planning side of things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ohtani is still sore from being\u00a0struck on the back of his right shoulder\u00a0by a pitch from the New York Mets\u2019 David Peterson on Monday. The Japanese superstar let out a howl, but stayed in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it weren\u2019t for the hit by pitch, he would\u2019ve been DHing and pitching tonight,\u201d Roberts said before the game. \u201cBut I do think that just to be able to pitch and focus on that will be a benefit for the mind and the body, and hopefully, we\u2019re just in a little moment of fatigue and we can get past it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ohtani didn\u2019t ice his shoulder after the game, which Roberts said was a good sign.<\/p>\n
Roberts said Ohtani has felt progressively better since Monday. But the training staff, coaches and Roberts felt it was better for him not to hit in the series finale, although Ohtani was initially surprised to hear the decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I\u2019ve never asked him to pitch and not hit,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cI think that he understands that I\u2019m making a decision that\u2019s best for the player, for him, and for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ohtani is 0 for 7 at the plate since getting hit.<\/p>\n
His career-best on-base streak reached 48 games after he was intentionally walked in the eighth inning Tuesday. It\u2019s the fourth-longest streak in franchise history.<\/p>\n
Roberts expects Ohtani to be back hitting and pitching in his next start, although he said he would consider giving Ohtani a hitting break again on a night when he\u2019s pitching at some point in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s got to make sense to not have your best hitter not in the lineup,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cThen the question is when he does hit, on days that he pitches, where\u2019s the best for him to hit in the order? I think there\u2019s fair arguments to both, to moving him down a little bit, give him a breather, let him get into the game. But I\u2019m not prepared to make that decision quite yet. But it is something that I\u2019m mindful of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dalton Rushing replaced Ohtani at designated hitter and blasted a grand slam in the eighth inning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not getting used to it,\u201d Rushing said, chuckling. \u201cHe told me to hit a homer for him. I guess it worked out in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if he would be a one-way player again, Ohtani smiled and said, \u201cYeah, totally. We have a really good DH hit today, so I\u2019m very open to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the mound, Ohtani had his streak of 28 2\/3 innings without allowing an earned run snapped on MJ Melendez\u2019s RBI double in the fifth.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust added a little more intensity after they scored a run,\u201d Ohtani said. \u201cBut overall it felt really nice and easy and loose throughout the whole outing. So I think that\u2019s the reason why I threw a little harder.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roberts noticed Ohtani dig deeper after giving up a second double to Melendez.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was 98 all night, some 99s and then in the fifth inning reaches back for 100,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cThat\u2019s nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ohtani made his Dodgers pitching debut last season, going 1-1 with a 2.87 ERA and 62 strikeouts in 47 innings over 14 starts. His four-seam fastball averaged a career-best 98.4 mph last year.<\/p>\n
Ohtani owns the longest on-base streak\u00a0by a Japanese-born player at 48 games, surpassing Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki, who reached in 43 straight games in 2009.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES–Shohei Ohtani\u00a0struck out 10 as the starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night, when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,12713,6763,100,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-271093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news","11":"tag-asahi-shimbun","12":"tag-japan","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}