Ohtani gives up HR, then hits one of his own in win
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Alden Gonzalez
LOS ANGELES — The first extra-base hit Shohei Ohtani allowed this season came against his 34th batter, Byron Buxton, who led off Monday’s game by driving a flat sweeper out to left-center field for a leadoff home run. Ohtani then came to bat in the bottom of the first and quickly made up for it — lining a 441-foot two-run homer to straight-away center field and setting the tone in a 5-2 Los Angeles Dodgers victory over the Minnesota Twins.
The Dodgers won for only the third time in 13 games, but they came within a foot of blowing a four-run lead in the final inning — and they may have lost one of their most important relievers for the foreseeable future.
With two on and one out in the top of the ninth, Tanner Scott threw a 2-2 fastball to Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers that registered at 93.7 mph, about three ticks slower than his season average. After the next pitch, a slider in the dirt, Scott exited with what Dodgers manager Dave Roberts described as a “sting” in his left forearm. The 30-year-old left-hander, who has struggled through the first season of a four-year, $72 million contract, will undergo an MRI on Tuesday.
“Obviously any time a pitcher’s gotta come out of the game, it’s concerning,” said Roberts, who added that Scott is “most likely” heading to the injured list. “We’re just gonna sit back and wait for the results to kind of further assess.”
Kirby Yates, summoned to relieve Scott, threw a first-pitch ball to walk Jeffers and load the bases, then allowed a sacrifice fly and nearly blew the lead to Carlos Correa, who drove a middle-middle splitter out to center for what looked like a game-tying home run. But James Outman ranged to the warning track, settled under the baseball, reached his glove above his head and caught it mere inches away from the wall. If not for the moisture in the air, Roberts believes, it would have sailed over it.
Said Roberts: “We dodged one there.”
Earlier, the Dodgers had dodged an outing in which Ohtani wasn’t particularly sharp. In his second consecutive three-inning outing, Ohtani threw a season-high 46 pitches and allowed seven batted balls that exceeded 95 mph. But he allowed only the one run, scattering three other hits, issuing a walk and striking out three batters to bring his season ERA — through six starts and 12 innings — to 1.50.
Ohtani, speaking through an interpreter, felt he made “a lot of mistakes over the plate, especially with two strikes” and should have expanded the strike zone more often, rather than throwing so many hittable pitches.
His start came on the heels of the Dodgers getting swept by the surging Milwaukee Brewers, one day after agreeing to move into the No. 2 spot of the lineup to give a slumping Mookie Betts a fresh look at leadoff. Speaking before the game, Roberts talked about how he could feel Ohtani wanting to will the team out of this funk. Then Ohtani — with help from Dustin May, who contributed 4⅔ scoreless innings after him, and Will Smith, who homered twice — did just that.
“It’s easy to really fall into the trap of getting a little bit tense, especially when the mood is not that great,” Ohtani said. “So it’s really trying to balance and find a way to stay relaxed while you play. And at the same time, yeah, I do feel responsible for it.”
Ohtani became the first player to hit and allow a home run in the first inning of a game since Randy Lerch on May 17, 1979, who did so in the early stages of a game that finished with a 23-22 score, according to ESPN Research. Ohtani’s homer was his 35th this season, making him the ninth player with multiple 35-homer seasons in both leagues. It was also the 260th of his career, making him one of just 12 players with that many through his first eight seasons.
None of those players, of course, pitched.
Ohtani was making his first start in nine days, a function of the just-completed All-Star break. His sweeper lacked its typical depth and his four-seam fastball, which he relied on heavily, averaged 97 mph, a tick down from his season average. But he was effective nonetheless. In his next start, he will progress to four innings.
“I want to get to that four-inning mark,” Ohtani said. “Overall, a lot of pitches, and so it was good that I was able to get to that point in terms of pitch count.”
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