DENVER — It’s the worry that comes with having the game’s most valuable two-way player. Everything Shohei Ohtani does as a pitcher puts his contributions as a hitter in jeopardy.
The Dodgers’ hopes and fears collided briefly Wednesday night. In the midst of his worst pitching start as a Dodger, Ohtani was hit in the side of the right leg by a comebacker during the fourth inning. He stayed in the game, completed the inning on the mound but came out of the game entirely after just one more plate appearance (a walk in the fifth inning).
The Colorado Rockies had nine hits in Ohtani’s four innings, scored five times against him and the Dodgers never really returned fire, losing 8-3.
“I got hit in the same spot, hit by a pitch,” Ohtani said through his interpreter. “Right now, it feels pretty good. I’m going to do everything in my ability to make sure that it doesn’t affect me moving forward.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had already decided to give Ohtani the day game off on Thursday, giving him a day to recover before the next showdown series with the second-place San Diego Padres, who are now back within a game of the Dodgers in the NL West.
“That’s my intention,” Ohtani said when asked if he expected to play on Friday. “I’m just making sure I get my treatment, and the goal is to make sure that I’m back to normal again.”
The Dodgers were left grateful that Ohtani was hit in the thigh and not in the knee.
“I’m pretty confident. I am. I’m confident,” Roberts said of Ohtani playing on Friday.
“A contusion to the thigh – we’ll see how he comes out of it. But guys get hit all the time, by a pitcher not by a batted ball. I’m hopeful, confident. But we have to see how he comes in on Friday.”
The Dodgers have been wounded by their trip to Coors Field, having lost two of the first three to the 90-loss Rockies.
They arrived on Monday with a chance to pad their lead in the NL West against the team with the worst record in baseball. Instead, they need to win Thursday afternoon just to split the four-game series and maintain a lead over the Padres going into the weekend series in San Diego.
The Dodgers have bracketed their home sweep of the Padres with a clunker of a series in Anaheim (swept in three games) and a clear letdown in Colorado where they have lost two of three.
“The results are the results. The performance is the performance. It certainly speaks to it,” Roberts acknowledged. “I’d like to think it’s not a letdown. But when you’re at Coors and putting together some of these at-bats – I don’t have the answer.
“But I guess right now as I’m sitting here, there’s nothing I can do to change it. We’ve got to win tomorrow. But when you look back, it certainly leaves a sour taste in your mouth.”
In his first career pitching start at Coors Field (he started the 2021 MLB All-Star Game here), Ohtani was given a display of one of the factors that make the place such a torture chamber for pitchers.
He gave up two runs on three hits in the second inning, none hit particularly hard. Only one ball in the inning was hit harder than 87 mph (a single by Mickey Moniak). But Coors Field comes with more outfield grass for hitters to find than any other MLB park.
In the fourth, it was more of the same. Arcia’s liner off of Ohtani’s leg was the last of five consecutive hits to start the inning. These were hit harder – including the 93.7 mph shot off of Ohtani’s leg.
“I just don’t think today Shohei had his best stuff,” Roberts said. “The fastball wasn’t as good as it typically is. The breaking ball wasn’t as sharp. The cutter, the same thing. I just think today just wasn’t his night. And talking to Mark (Prior) even in the ’pen (before the game) it didn’t seem like his stuff was there tonight – not that it always correlates. But the stuff just wasn’t there tonight.”
Ohtani persevered through the three-run fourth inning, facing three more batters after Arcia’s liner. But he finished his pitching day with five runs allowed on nine hits – both highs for the Dodgers portion of his pitching career.
His ERA in his return to the mound this season is now 4.51 after he gave up nine runs in 8⅓ innings to the Angels and Rockies in his past two starts.
“I put the team in a bad spot. It was just a very regrettable outing. I wish I could have done better,” he said.
“I was aware in my bullpen session that the ball doesn’t move quite as much as it does at normal sea level. But again, that’s not an excuse. That’s something that I’m going to make sure I work on next time I pitch here at Coors Field.”
The Dodgers’ offense had one of its disconcerting lows, managing just one run on four hits against a Rockies starter with a career ERA of 8.30 coming into the game.
Right-hander Tanner Gordon had accrued that bloated ERA in 16 starts for the Rockies over two seasons. But he mixed a fastball that averaged just 92.5 mph with an unexceptional slider and changeup that would not make him a hot draft prospect if he could go back to school.
“I really don’t have an answer,” Roberts said. “Obviously he’s a command guy. We didn’t hit the fastball. I don’t think we took good swings off anything soft. I don’t know the answer.
“This was baffling in the sense of the guys that we have, that we’re running out there, just to see the inconsistencies. We’re trying to figure it out. This has got to be one that we just really wash away. I’m very grateful we have a day game tomorrow.”
Ohtani led off the game with a double but he didn’t advance, and the Dodgers didn’t get another runner to second base until the fifth inning. That didn’t lead to anything either.
The Dodgers’ only run off Gordon came in the sixth inning on a home run by Teoscar Hernandez.
The Rockies added three more runs against the Dodgers’ bullpen. The Dodgers scored two unearned runs in the ninth on a two-out double by Miguel Rojas.