LOS ANGELES — Instead of blowing out the candles on his birthday cake, Shohei Ohtani blew three nasty breaking pitches by Astros hitters to punctuate a scoreless outing on the mound.
Ohtani tossed two scoreless innings against the Astros in his fourth start on the mound this season on Saturday, his 31st birthday. He threw a season-high 31 pitches (21 strikes).
At the plate, Ohtani went 1-for-4 with a base hit and a walk atop the lineup as the Dodgers fell, 6-4, dropping the first two games of the series against the Astros. They will look to salvage the series in Sunday’s finale, their last home game before the All-Star break.
“I think the stuff continues to get better, the command, the feel for making pitches,” manager Dave Roberts said of Ohtani’s pitching progression. “I think it’s nice to see that he doesn’t have to throw it as hard as he can. I think it’s just more of a controlled fastball, control stuff, and really efficient.”
Ohtani breezed through a 10-pitch first inning, allowing a leadoff single to Isaac Paredes but quickly erasing him on a double play. He had to work a little harder to get through the second, but he got all three Astros he faced to go down swinging: Christian Walker whiffed on a slider, while Victor Caratini and Yainer Diaz couldn’t hold off on a pair of sweepers out of the zone.
When Ohtani walked off the mound after his second and final inning, Dodger Stadium organist Dieter Ruehle played “Happy Birthday.”
“As long as I can play the way I want to play,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton, “I usually spend my birthday just like any other day.”
Ohtani averaged 97.9 mph on his four-seamer — a tick down from his season average — and topped out at 100.9 mph. In six innings pitched this season, he has allowed one run, struck out six and scattered four hits and one walk.
Ohtani was relieved by Justin Wrobleski, who labored through his first two innings, giving up five runs (four earned). But Wrobleski did not allow another run after that, giving the Dodgers some length with 4 2/3 innings in all.
Wrobleski has recently found success pitching behind an opener in a bulk role, holding opponents to five runs (four earned) in his previous 20 1/3 innings entering Saturday. With Ben Casparius being shifted back to the bullpen, an Ohtani-Wrobleski tandem seems like the logical way to handle this spot in the rotation.
“What I’ve realized is the results are going to come if you just focus on the right things and continue to improve each time out,” Wrobleski said. “Whether that’s your next inning or your next outing or whatever it is, just being able to move on from whatever the result is, whether it’s good or bad, and just continue to focus on what creates success.”
While he’s back to starting games, Ohtani is essentially serving as a multi-inning opener. He is continuing to build his pitch count at the big league level, and the Dodgers have taken things slowly with their two-way star in his return from a second major surgery on his right elbow.
Ohtani could reasonably make one more start before the All-Star break, likely next weekend in San Francisco. He could potentially get into the third inning his next time out, but his buildup has not been strictly linear. If it was, then he would be close to a traditional starter’s workload through four outings, rather than capped at two innings.
The Dodgers are hopeful that Ohtani can fully stretch out by season’s end, but it will be a deliberate process.
“If you look at where he’s at now, the calendar, I think that him getting to five, six innings is certainly feasible,” Roberts said. “Don’t know what that’s going to be, but yeah, I can see as a natural progression that we can get to that point.”
Very little about Ohtani’s buildup has been traditional, not least that it is taking place in meaningful games. The Dodgers are focused on getting the most out of him in the long run, rather than in the short term.
“In a rehab progression, it’s really important to just take one step at a time,” Ohtani said. “There are times when I may be able to go another inning, but it’s really important not to take unnecessary risks and make sure that I can progress consistently.”
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