LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani had one job.
Pitching but not hitting for the second time this season, Ohtani did his job well enough, allowing only single runs in the second and fifth innings. But the Ohtani-less lineup didn’t do its job. The Dodgers were shut out into the eighth inning and lost to the Miami Marlins, 2-1, on Tuesday night.
“Stuff-wise, it wasn’t that great,” Ohtani said through his interpreter. “I wasn’t happy with how the runs scored too. So overall, it wasn’t that great of an outing.
“From the bullpen (warming up for the game), I didn’t exactly feel like my stuff was in line with where I wanted to be. I feel great physically. I think it’s something to do with my mechanics.”
If the Dodgers’ hope is to lessen the stress in Ohtani’s two-way lifestyle by occasionally limiting him to one-way duty, games like Tuesday’s will not help.
The Marlins had runners on base in five of Ohtani’s six innings, in scoring position in four of those. Ohtani’s pitch count climbed over 80 in the fifth inning and reached 104 after six, the most he has thrown in a start since July 2023 with the Angels (before his second Tommy John surgery).
The Marlins’ first run was Ohtani’s fault in more ways than one. He hit Agustin Ramirez with a pitch to put the Marlins catcher on base. Then when Ramirez took off from first base, Ohtani had him picked off. But Ohtani’s throw to second base was wild and Ramirez wound up at third base. A sacrifice fly drove him in from there.
In the fifth, a leadoff walk came back to haunt Ohtani. The Marlins bunted the runner to second base and Kyle Stowers drove the run in with a two-out single.
Things could have been worse, but Ohtani struck out nine and held the Marlins to 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position. After five starts and 30 innings this season, Ohtani has allowed just four runs, only two earned, for an ERA of 0.60.
“I don’t think he felt completely in sync,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “There was a lot of misfires and bad misses. It was with him probably a delivery situation. But for him to still find a way to navigate six innings and then give up two runs, we should win the game. I give him a lot of credit.”
By contrast, Marlins starter Janson Junk spent his night in a largely stress-free environment.
The Dodgers loaded the bases with one out in the first inning on an error by shortstop Otto Lopez, an infield single and a walk. But Max Muncy popped out and Teoscar Hernandez bounced into a force out.
That started a stretch during which Junk retired 16 of 17 Dodgers batters, a calm only lightly disturbed by a two-out single from Will Smith in the third inning. The Dodgers’ next hit was another harmless two-out single by Kyle Tucker in the sixth.
While Ohtani was fighting through traffic nearly every inning and throwing over 100 pitches in the process, Junk got through his six innings on 76 pitches, didn’t throw more than 15 in any inning and didn’t have a runner in scoring position after the first inning.
“It happens. It’s a long season,” Dodgers catcher Will Smith said. “We’re gonna have games where we score 10 runs. But these couple games, they’ve been pitching well. They have good arms over there.
“I think he (Junk) was just attacking, getting ‘Strike one.’ Threw us a little off balance.”
Held in check for most of Monday’s game, the Dodgers rallied for three runs to win in the ninth. They came to life in the eighth inning Tuesday. Singles by Alex Freeland, Freddie Freeman and Smith produced their first run of the ninth and had the tying run on third base with one out.
But Tucker couldn’t repeat his heroics from Monday. Marlins lefty reliever John King got Tucker to pop out and Max Muncy to ground out, stranding the tying run. The Dodgers couldn’t re-light the fire in the ninth and Roberts was not happy with the offensive approach.
“If you’re not going to put up crooked numbers and clicking on all cylinders, you gotta be good situationally. And we were not good at all tonight situationally,” he said. “That’s what it comes down to. You have a chance to catch a lead early in the first inning and stress them, and we let them off the hook. Then you have a chance in the eighth inning and do the same thing. And in between all that, there’s nothing going on. So when you do get opportunities, you gotta be good situationally. That’s just the bottom line.”
A lack of familiarity with Junk might have been a factor, Roberts said. But the Dodger hitters were overly aggressive, getting themselves out in those run-scoring opportunities in the first and eighth innings. They finished the night 2 for 7 with runners in scoring position
“You’re not hitting your pitch,” Roberts said. “In both situations, I think, when we have chances, infield’s in — it’s a ball to the outfield. Yeah, hitting is hard, certainly. But we have to have a better plan. You have to have a plan with guys in scoring position. You do.”
Their best hitter (Ohtani) was not in the lineup after going 6 for 8 in the previous two games. But a poor offensive night without Ohtani will not change the Dodgers’ decision-making when it comes to easing Ohtani’s workload with occasional one-way games.
“I don’t think that is going to play into my math,” Roberts said. “I think the main thing is to do right by Shohei. Even without him tonight in the lineup, we should’ve won the game. I feel good about it. I’d do the same thing again.”