LOS ANGELES — It had the potential to be one of the more uncomfortable no-hitters in MLB history.
Shohei Ohtani walked four batters, hit another and gave up a run – but allowed no hits through six innings against the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday night. He matched that run with a leadoff home run and the Dodgers’ bullpen took the combined no-hitter into the eighth inning before Tanner Scott gave up a single with two outs. That was the only hit the Dodgers allowed in a 4-1 victory, their fifth straight win and their 12th in the past 14 games.
It was the second start in a row that Ohtani rewarded the Dodgers for letting him also hit while pitching by hitting a leadoff home run. He took Rockies starter Tomoyuki Sugano 424 feet over the wall in center field to start the first inning. Two batters later, Freddie Freeman also took Sugano deep.
Staked to an early lead, Ohtani never seemed to settle in and needed 99 pitches to get through his six innings. That made it a relatively obvious call for Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to go to the bullpen in the seventh.
It was the 10th time in his managerial career that Roberts pulled a pitcher with a no-hitter going in the fifth inning or later – a list that includes two seven-inning perfect games (Rich Hill in 2016 and Clayton Kershaw in 2022), a combined no-hitter (Walker Buehler only went six innings in the 2018 no-hitter) and, most recently, Ohtani after five innings last Sept. 16.
The closest the Rockies came to a hit in six innings against Ohtani was Troy Johnston’s line drive to right field, leading off the second inning. The ball was hooking away from Alex Call but he made a diving catch.
For the second consecutive pitching start, Ohtani was essentially a two-pitch pitcher, throwing his four-seam fastball and sweeper about 80% of the time, apparently not comfortable enough with the rest of his five-pitch arsenal (curveball, splitter, two-seam fastball) to throw any of them more than a handful of times.
In fact, Ohtani struggled with his command of everything. He walked four batters and hit another in the first five innings. His poor command led to a hitless run for the Rockies in the fourth inning.
Ohtani walked TJ Rumfield to start the inning then hit Hunter Goodman with a 2-and-0, two-seam fastball. Troy Johnston bounced into a force out that moved Rumfield to third base. He scored when Willi Castro bounced a ground ball over first baseman Freddie Freeman’s head. Second baseman Alex Freeland grabbed it and dove to beat Castro to first base for the out, but Rumfield trotted home on the play.
That ended a scoreless innings streak for Ohtani at 19 (and was only the fifth earned run he has allowed in nine pitching starts and 55 innings this season).
He walked the first batter in the fifth inning but retired the next six in order, finishing his night with seven strikeouts and 14 swings-and-misses (nine on his fastball, four on his sweeper and one on a curveball) but only 56 strikes in his 99 pitches.
It was the third time in his career Ohtani has taken a no-hitter through six innings.
Will Klein replaced Ohtani and got through the seventh despite an error by Max Muncy at third base. Scott came on in the eighth inning and struck out the first two Rockies he faced. But Tyler Freeman lined a 1-and-2 fastball through the right side of the infield for a clean single.
Andy Pages led off the bottom of the eighth with the Dodgers’ third home run of the game and Kyle Hurt closed it out in the ninth.
More to come on this story.