BALTIMORE -- Not even 3 2/3 scoreless, blistering innings from Shohei Ohtani could lift the Dodgers out of a funk that continued in Friday night’s 2-1 loss to the Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
Ohtani -- as he has much of this season -- carried some of the best velocity of his career after he was unexpectedly named the Dodgers’ starting pitcher in place of Tyler Glasnow, who was scratched due to back tightness.
But the suddenly stagnant Dodgers offense had only five hits while sinking to a fourth consecutive defeat and their sixth loss out of their last seven games, scoring three runs or fewer in five of those losses.
Baltimore rookie Samuel Basallo sealed Friday’s outcome when he launched his first career Camden Yards home run in walk-off fashion off Tanner Scott (1-3). The NL West-leading Dodgers remained two games in front of the Padres, who have lost five straight, in the division.
“We individually are trying to find ways to make sure on our own that we’re hitting better than we are,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “And I think a side effect of that is we’re a little too eager and putting too much pressure on ourselves.”
Ohtani touched triple digits a career-best 11 times during his improvised outing.
That included six four-seamers thrown during the fourth inning as he struck out Colton Cowser and Emmanuel Rivera after Ryan Mountcastle led off with a double and reached third on a wild pitch. Lefty reliever Anthony Banda relieved Ohtani and got the left-handed Basallo to ground out to keep the O’s scoreless through four.
“Even leading up to the fourth inning, there was a lot of stress and a lot of high-velocity pitches,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “For me, I’m not going to risk him just to get another hitter where we have a guy that’s fresh that I felt needs to be able to get those lefties out.”
Ohtani topped out at 101.5 mph -- fractions off the career-best 101.7 mph he posted in a start on June 28 at the Royals. He struck out five, allowed three hits and a walk and threw 44 of 70 pitches for strikes.
"I have not been paying close enough attention to him pitching coming back,” admitted O’s interim manager Tony Mansolino. “I had it in my mind that the stuff would be down a little bit coming off the Tommy John surgery. That was not the case. It was filthy.”
Ohtani had been scheduled to start Wednesday but was scratched due to a chest cold, his start originally pushed to Monday. That all changed when he was slotted into the battery three hours before his 12th start as a Dodger and his first since stretching out to five innings for the first time on Aug. 27.
“I actually felt really good coming into the game today,” Ohtani said. “Probably the worst I felt was Game 1 and Game 2 [on Tuesday and Wednesday] in Pittsburgh. I started to feel a lot better on my last day in Pittsburgh.”
Freddie Freeman hit his 19th home run to pull the Dodgers level at 1-1 in the sixth. Jackson Holliday opened the scoring in the bottom of the fifth, racing home from second on reliever Ben Casparius’ wild pitch during a steal of third.
Ohtani, 31, lowered his ERA to 3.75 this year, his first as a pitcher since signing with the Dodgers. The front-runner for the NL MVP Award is hitting .277 with 46 home runs and 87 RBIs in 138 games as a designated hitter.
His return to the mound -- which began in mid-June -- has been carefully managed, increasing his innings load gradually from one frame in his first two starts to 17 1/3 innings in his four August outings, each coming seven days apart.
Glasnow tied a season high with seven innings pitched in his last start, Saturday against the D-backs. Roberts said Glasnow was still in line to pitch until back tightness that began on Thursday night continued into Friday.
“The hope is that we push him back a few days and he can make a start early next week,” Roberts said.
Glasnow has won just one of his 14 starts this year, but he has pitched well since returning from a bout of right shoulder inflammation on July 9, posting a 3.02 ERA with 58 strikeouts in 50 2/3 innings spanning nine starts.