LOS ANGELES -- The clubhouse postgame was dead silent. Boos rained down onto the field at Dodger Stadium. But for a brief moment, Shohei Ohtani roared the crowd back to life.
Ohtani pitched five no-hit innings against the NL East champion Phillies on Tuesday and left the game with a four-run advantage. It took less than a half-inning for the Phillies to take the lead upon the two-way superstar’s exit, putting up six runs on Justin Wrobleski and Edgardo Henriquez to push ahead.
But Ohtani, leading off the bottom of the eighth at the plate, drove a second-pitch cutter 430 feet over the right-field wall at 113.4 mph -- his 50th of the year -- to inch the Dodgers back within a run. He is the first player with 50 home runs in back-to-back seasons since Alex Rodriguez in 2001-02; he is also the first in MLB history to hit 50 homers and record 50 strikeouts as a pitcher in a single season.
For all the dominance he displayed and the milestones he achieved on Tuesday night, Ohtani kept a singular focus.
“Of course, reaching that point means the team is more likely to win,” Ohtani told the Japanese media.
The rest of the lineup rallied behind Ohtani, loading the bases and tying the game on a sac fly from Alex Call, though the Phillies came back against Blake Treinen in the top of the ninth to win.
Before Ohtani’s outing, manager Dave Roberts referred to it as a “good test” -- a preview of pitching against a postseason-ready opponent -- for the two-way superstar.
Ohtani responded by retiring 15 of the 16 batters he faced.
“I had a really good feeling, I think we all did, that he was going to kind of pitch well tonight,” Roberts said. “I thought he and Ben [Rortvedt] did a great job together. I thought the fastball command glove-side was fantastic. The sweeper was great. They were obviously not getting many good swings off him. He was dominant.”
Ohtani picked up his first of five strikeouts in the first inning. In a 2-1 count, he got Kyle Schwarber to whiff on a slider at the bottom of the zone for strike two. On the next pitch, Ohtani changed up the eye level with another slider painted onto the high inside corner that froze Schwarber for the called third strike.
One of the signature moments from the night came in the fourth inning, when Ohtani put down Bryce Harper on a three-pitch sequence. After Harper fouled off a sweeper and a fastball, Ohtani threw him a low curveball that Harper couldn’t lay off of.
Despite just six swings and misses, Ohtani was able to stay ahead of hitters with an increased velocity – his fastball was averaging 99.2 mph while the slider was up to 89, both roughly a full tick above his season average. The fastball topped out at 101.7 mph, tied for the fastest pitch of his career (June 28 at Kansas City).
“I felt like everything went according to the plan this outing,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “Working with Ben today, just felt like we were on the same page throughout the whole game and it was pretty impressive to come up with a really good gameplan.”
Before Ohtani stepped into the batter’s box to lead off the bottom of the fifth inning, Roberts approached him to ask how he was feeling.
“I feel OK,” Ohtani told him.
But with Ohtani being hard-capped at five innings, and Wrobleski warming up in the bullpen, Roberts clarified afterwards that he was trying to gauge how Ohtani felt to inform his outings going forward. Ohtani was not going to pitch in the sixth on Tuesday, no matter what.
“We’ve been very steadfast in every situation as far as inning for his usage -- from one inning to two to three to four to five. We haven’t deviated from that,” Roberts said. “So I was trying to get his pulse for going forward, where he’s at, continuing to go to the sixth inning.
“... I’m not gonna have a plan for five innings, and then he pitches well and say, ‘Hey, now you’re gonna go for six innings.’ He’s too important. And if something does happen, then that’s on me for changing it. We haven’t done that all year, so I’m not gonna do that right now.”
Roberts stuck with the plan, but the game unraveled from there, the latest episode of the Dodgers’ recent bullpen woes.
Though Ohtani briefly got things back on track with the rally he sparked in the eighth, a three-run home run from Rafael Marchán the next inning ended up deciding the game.