PITTSBURGH — Shohei Ohtani might not have been the best two-way player in this game.
Tyler Callihan, a utility man for the Pittsburgh Pirates, had no home runs in his first 19 major-league games but one pitching appearance – he went to the mound, mop in hand, for the final inning of Tuesday’s blowout game (his professional debut as a pitcher). He now has two home runs as a big-leaguer after hitting both to power the Pirates to a 9-8, come-from-behind victory over the Dodgers on Wednesday night.
The Dodgers and Ohtani, who gave up a season-high four runs in 6⅔ innings, let a 6-1 lead melt in the humidity at PNC Park then watched the Pirates explode for five runs in the eighth inning.
It was an eventful day for Ohtani even before that.
He was robbed of a home run, gave up a home run that cleared the right-field seats, hit a home run, reached 100 mph 15 times (rounding up) and pitched into the seventh inning for only the third time in 11 starts this season.
That’s when things went south on the Dodgers.
They built their 6-1 lead despite Pirates left fielder Bryan Reynolds robbing Ohtani of a home run at the left field wall in the third inning.
An inning later, the Dodgers put two runs on the board with doubles by Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy and an RBI single by Kyle Tucker.
That lead was cut in half when Callihan jumped on a first-pitch fastball from Ohtani and sent it 427 feet over the right-field seats for his first major-league home run.
That was the only mark on Ohtani as he took the mound for the seventh inning, now sitting on a five-run lead after Ryan Ward hit his first career grand slam in the sixth.
He walked the first batter then gave up a single on a swinging bunt. Back-to-back strikeouts had Ohtani on the verge of escaping the inning but he fell behind 3-and-0 to Brandon Lowe – two of those nipping at the strike zone but unchallenged by the Dodgers. Lowe then lined a fastball into right field for a two-out, two-run double.
Ohtani’s pitching night was over, but the Pirates closed the gap further when an error by Muncy led to another run.
Kyle Hurt took over in the eighth inning. He walked just two batters in his first 14 innings this season but has walked seven in his past eight innings – including the first two Pirates he faced. That brought up Callihan again.
He didn’t clear the right-field seats this time but he lined a first-pitch changeup from Hurt into the crowd for a three-run home run that gave the Pirates the lead. Jack Dreyer replaced Hurt and ran into his own issues. He gave up a two-run home run to Spencer Horwitz, his third home run allowed in five appearances since returning from the injured list.
In danger of being thoroughly overshadowed, Ohtani hit a two-run home run in the ninth inning to close the gap before Pirates left-hander Gregory Soto could close out the game.
More to come on this story.