LOS ANGELES — Items on Shohei Ohtani’s bucket list tend to get checked off.
The four-time league MVP has his eyes on a new prize this year – a Cy Young Award. Performances like Tuesday’s season pitching debut make it seem attainable.
Ohtani didn’t give up a hit until the fourth inning and allowed just that one in six scoreless innings as the Dodgers beat the Cleveland Guardians, 4-1, Tuesday night for their fourth win in the first five games of the season.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to that. It’s pretty special,” third baseman Max Muncy said of watching his team’s DH and leadoff hitter pitch six one-hit innings. “It’s really hard to put into words when you see it in person, what he’s able to do. Really, my only thought is ‘How good is that guy going to sleep tonight?’
“If he’s able to do it the whole year, it’s just a huge boost to our pitching staff, which we already feel really good about. I expect nothing short of almost a Cy Young out of him.”
Ohtani’s spring preparations as a pitcher were compacted due to his time with Team Japan for the World Baseball Classic. He pitched in just two preseason games, but he made the most of them, holding the San Francisco Giants to one hit in 4⅓ innings in Arizona then striking out 11 Angels in four innings during the Freeway Series.
“The thing that stood out most was he had two starts with us and he realized that so there was an urgency,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Overtly, you couldn’t see it, but there was real intention to make sure he was dialed in in both starts and he was very good.”
Ohtani kept it on the same setting against the Guardians. He gave up two long fly balls in the first inning but struck out two in the second inning and retired the first seven Guardians in order before allowing a baserunner.
He walked two in the third inning but worked around it. A successful ABS challenge by the Dodgers flipped a 2-and-1 count to 1-and-2 and Ohtani got C.J. Kayfus to chase a curveball in the dirt for strike three to strand both runners.
Rhys Hoskins broke up Ohtani’s no-hit bid with two outs in the fourth, hooking a double down the left field line. He was stranded at second.
“That’s my intention every year – to be a better pitcher, better player,” Ohtani said through his interpreter. “At the end of the year my intention is to be able to look back and say that was a really good pitching season.
“Last year, I felt good (in his return from a second Tommy John surgery). But this year I do feel a lot more loose and easy pitching overall. Looking back at today’s outing specifically, that wasn’t necessarily the case. So that’s something I want to work on. But compared to last season I felt more loose and easy.”
The Guardians put runners on with two outs again in the fifth (a hit batter) and sixth (Ohtani’s third walk of the game) but Ohtani went about his business retiring the side. He struck out Hoskins on a sweeper to end the sixth inning with his 87th and final pitch of the night.
Ohtani wasn’t at his most overpowering – he had modest totals of 11 swings-and-misses (five on his splitter) and six strikeouts. But he handled the Guardians’ lineup as easily as he scraped the mud off his cleats during a brief sixth-inning delay when a light rain mucked up the pitcher’s mound. Ohtani hasn’t given up a run in his past 22⅔ regular-season innings (the longest scoreless streak of his MLB pitching career).
“He had a good mix. It really had no pattern to it,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said of Ohtani. “He was throwing all of his pitches. Obviously the fastball velocity was good (Ohtani averaged 96.8 mph on his four-seam fastball). His command was good, and all of his offspeed he was landing for the most part. So, tough to get stuff going with one hit.”
The Dodgers found it difficult to get anything going either. The offense that has been stagnant since an eight-run Opening Day pushed across just one run in the first five innings. Three singles culminating in Andy Pages’ full-count, two-out liner to right field produced that run in the fourth.
Muncy doubled the lead with a solo home run off lefty reliever Kolby Allard in the bottom of the sixth. Four singles in the eighth (including Pages’ second RBI of the night) doubled it again but the Dodgers have scored just 14 runs in the four games since Opening Day.
“We’re still finding our stride a little bit,” said Muncy, personally relieved that it took less than the career-high 106 plate appearances he waited to hit his first home run of the 2025 season. “We’ve had some opportunities that we haven’t cashed in, but we’re putting together really good at-bats. We’ve just been pitched really tough these first couple games, but I like the at-bats that everyone’s been taking. We’ve been having a couple results here and there, but that’s kind of baseball. You’re going to have stretches where you go off and stretches where you don’t.”
Alex Vesia and Jack Dreyer each turned in a hitless inning in relief. A light but steady rain was falling over the last few innings and Edwin Diaz struggled with the wet conditions. Entering for the ninth inning in a non-save situation, he hit a batter and walked another before losing the shutout on a Brayan Rocchio RBI single and then closing it out.
“Big time,” Roberts said of how the wet mound affected Diaz. “It was good to see him lock in once the hit-batsman, the walk. But I do think it affected him. The footing with the pitchers is everything. And then when you’re landing, you don’t trust that you’re not going to slide and potentially hurt yourself. So that matters. But it was good to see him lock back in.”
“Really good outing from Sho.”
Dave Roberts addresses the media after the #Dodgers even up the series, beating the Guardians 4-1. pic.twitter.com/BeF1eKK87d
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) April 1, 2026
6 scoreless innings for Ohtani
#Dodgers pic.twitter.com/pYDZM6TOqe
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) April 1, 2026
“Felt really good going into the game… I focused on execution.”
Shohei Ohtani (W (1-0), 6.0 IP, H, 3 BB, 6 K, 87 P; 1-3, 2 BB) talks with @kirsten_watson after the Dodgers even up the series, beating the Guardians 4-1. pic.twitter.com/nV3kJR8Jlu
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) April 1, 2026
ABSOLUTE BOMB
BY MUNCY#Dodgers pic.twitter.com/5Ahe65nhKY
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) April 1, 2026
“I feel really good in the box.”
Max Muncy (2-3, HR (1), RBI, 2 R) talks with the media after the #Dodgers even up the series, beating the Guardians 4-1. pic.twitter.com/WrEvCcOLga
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) April 1, 2026