LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani does more before the fifth inning than most players do all game.
With more than 40,000 fans wearing his World Series ring (the promotional giveaway Wednesday) after lining up hours before the game to get theirs, Ohtani struck out eight in a season-high four innings pitched and gave himself the lead with a 440-foot, two-run home run that just happened to be his 1,000th hit in the major leagues.
But it wasn’t enough.
The Dodgers let a two-run lead melt in the heat. Alex Vesia and Brock Stewart gave up three runs in the final two innings of a 5-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals took two out of three in the series and won the season series (4-3) for the first time since 2019.
“A really close game throughout,” Ohtani said through his interpreter. “I think it would have been a huge win for us if we were able to flip the script. I could have done better with the quality of at-bats in the middle part of the game.”
He did a lot in the early part.
A week after having to leave the game as a pitcher due to cramping in his right hip, Ohtani was feeling frisky against the Cardinals. Thirty-one of his 54 pitches were four-seam fastballs, including nine that touched 100 mph and one that hit 101.1 mph. The Cardinals swung at 15 of them, missed six times and also took seven for called strikes.
“I really felt good with the command of the fastball today,” Ohtani said.
Ohtani doubled his previous season-high with eight strikeouts Wednesday, including the last four batters he faced. But the Dodgers stuck with their predetermined plan, ending his pitching day after four innings.
The Cardinals got their only run off Ohtani without hitting a ball out of the infield. Miguel Rojas lost a pop up in the afternoon sun to start the third inning. After a stolen base and a groundout moved the runner to third, Brendan Donovan beat out a bunt single to drive in the run.
“I saw it off the bat. As soon as it got up, it got right in the sun,” Rojas said. “I lost it. When I found it again, it was on the way down and I couldn’t glove it. Unfortunately, that happened. I wish I could have told Mookie (Betts at shortstop) ahead of time that the sun was right there and I would need some help.
“I thought I was going to catch it. But it got right in the sun.”
In the bottom of the inning, though, Alex Call led off with a double. Alex Freeland popped out on his bunt attempt but Ohtani crushed a 93-mph sinker from Cardinals starter Matthew Liberatore, sending it 440 feet to left-center field for a two-run home run – and his 1,000th major-league hit. Only two other Japanese-born players (Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui) have reached 1,000 hits in MLB.
The ball left Ohtani’s bat at 109.5 mph, making Wednesday unofficially the fourth time in his MLB career that Ohtani has both thrown a pitch 100 mph or faster in the same game that he hit a home run with an exit velocity of 100 mph or higher.
It was also just the third time in his career that he recorded eight strikeouts as a pitcher and hit a home run as a hitter.
“Shohei was really good today,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “The pitching, fastball command – fantastic. Really impressive. Figured he’d come back and really throw the baseball well today, which he did. And then offensively, the walk, the homer, just really looked good.
“Unfortunately, you’ve got to play defense and you’ve got to have other guys put together at-bats and score runs, too.”
After Ohtani had completed his feats of strength for the day, the Dodgers added just one run – a gift from the Cardinals in the fourth inning – then tried to hold on.
Andy Pages led off that fourth inning with a single and moved up on a wild pitch. When he took off for third base with Rojas batting, Cardinals catcher Pedro Pages jumped up and threw towards third – but hit Rojas’ bat. The ball caromed to the backstop and Andy Pages scored as Pedro Pages looked around in bemusement.
“I think he threw the ball straight into the bat,” Rojas said. “I feel like I see so many times where the batters, when the runner is trying to take third, they try to get out of the way. I’ve been told my whole life that if you just stay there, you’re not doing anything wrong. So he has to take another step behind you to throw to third base. That’s what I was trying to do, to help him (Andy Pages) get there.”
Justin Wrobleski replaced Ohtani on the mound in the fifth and gave one run back in the sixth after a leadoff walk.
With the lead down to one, he stranded the tying run at second base in the seventh. Vesia took over in the eighth but couldn’t pull off his own escape act.
Alec Burleson led off with a single. After a fly out, Masyn Winn singled. Both runners held when Yohel Pozo flew out. One out away from getting away with the lead intact, Vesia gave up a single to Jordan Walker – the third consecutive right-handed hitter Roberts left him in to face.
Burleson scored on the hit to tie the game and Winn went to third. Andy Pages’ throw was too late to get him. Walker went to second on the play and third baseman Alex Freeland’s throw went into right field, allowing Winn to score the go-ahead run on the error.
“I just rushed it and made a bad throw,” Freeland said. “I just messed up.”
Stewart struggled in the top of the ninth, allowing another run on two hits, a walk and a hit batter. Stewart has given up runs in two of his first three appearances since the Dodgers acquired him in a deadline trade with the Minnesota Twins.
“I think I got behind some guys. That’s not a very good recipe for success,” Stewart said. “I wasn’t very sharp. That’s baseball. The stuff was good, just gotta compete, throw it in the strike zone, and trust that good things will happen.”