SAN FRANCISCO — That’ll do it.
Shohei Ohtani and Emmet Sheehan combined to take a shutout into the eighth inning as the Dodgers snapped their seven-game losing streak with a 2-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants Saturday afternoon.
“I was glad that I was able to prevent runs and we were able to keep the lead throughout the game,” Ohtani said through his interpreter.
“Throughout the losing streak we played pretty good games in there too. It’s good to finally put a ‘W’ on the board. I hope that this is the beginning of a bunch of wins to come.”
This one was a long time coming.
The Dodgers were outscored 52-17 in their seven-game slide, their longest since September 2017. But the first two games of this series in San Francisco have been decided by one run — the 54th and 55th one-run games played by these two rivals since 2015.
The Dodgers nearly ended this losing streak with a one-run win in Milwaukee Wednesday. But Tanner Scott’s sixth blown save of the season turned that into a walkoff win for the Brewers in extra innings. This time, Scott preserved the one-run lead and closed out a combined three-hitter.
“It was good. Obviously it feels a lot better sitting here today than it did the last seven days,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Obviously it started with Shohei. You could see it … that different demeanor that he carries on days that he pitches. You could see it that first inning with the three strikeouts and he took it from there. Competed, put us in a good spot to get the game going.
“After that, I thought Emmet was fantastic. He was efficient, did more than we could have asked for. We got some big hits and won a ballgame. We’ll all sleep better tonight.”
In his longest outing since 2023, Ohtani retired nine of the 11 batters he faced in three innings, allowing a single and walking a batter while striking out four.
Three of those strikeouts came in the first inning. He also struck out the side in the second inning of his previous start, making it six consecutive strikeouts for Ohtani the pitcher.
“Not to put any more pressure on him as a player, but when he goes out there, that’s what we expect of him, and I’m sure that’s what he expects of himself,” said Dalton Rushing, who has caught three of Ohtani’s five starts.
He relied on his four-seam fastball against the Giants, throwing it 23 times in his 36 total pitches. The average velocity was 97.8 mph, down slightly from his first six starts (98.4 mph) but he still hit 100 mph twice.
“Ideally, I’d like to be able to attack the zone with either fastball or offspeed,” Ohtani said. “It just really depends on that day, how I feel. Today was one of those days where my fastball felt pretty good, so I leaned on it a little bit more today.”
Following Ohtani in the fourth inning, Sheehan took time to find his footing – but once he found it, he strolled through the Giants’ lineup. He walked two of the first three batters he faced before retiring the next 12 in order, throwing just 40 pitches in his first four innings.
Patrick Bailey broke up the string with a one-out single in the eighth inning, the Giants’ second hit of the game. After a walk, Heliot Ramos singled to load the bases for Rafael Devers. Alex Vesia replaced Sheehan and got Devers to fly out, a run scoring on the play, then escaped the inning on a forceout.
Sheehan’s return from Tommy John surgery has gone as smoothly as anyone could have hoped. In three games for the Dodgers, he has allowed three runs on 10 hits over 13⅓ innings – and mixed in six perfect innings in one outing at Triple-A.
“I think the past few weeks, it’s just been all kind of coming together a little bit,” Sheehan said. “Curveball definitely felt better today. Slider took a little bit of time to get down and get some execution on. But other than that, it’s all off that fastball.”
The pitching effort came with minimal support.
After breaking out for seven runs on Friday night, the Dodgers’ offense went back into sleep mode, scratching out single runs in the second and sixth innings.
Michael Conforto led off the second with an infield single. Andy Pages followed with a bouncer through the middle that Giants shortstop Willy Adames smothered with a sprawling stop. He tried to flip to second for a force out but flung the ball onto the infield grass instead, putting runners at the corners. Conforto scored on Tommy Edman’s ground out.
In the sixth, Conforto singled with two outs (one of his three hits in the game) and moved up on a walk of Pages. Hyeseong Kim dumped a single into left field, scoring Conforto. But Kim was out trying to stretch his hit into a double.