Shohei Ohtani Made the Rays Look Silly and Erased Every Knee Concern in Four Innings
Shohei Ohtani made his start against the Rays on Wednesday and quieted every concern about his health in four innings.
The Dodgers’ two-way star had been dealing with a sore left knee and a blister on his right index finger. There was real worry about whether he should make this start at all. He went out and pitched four scoreless innings with seven strikeouts and one walk.
His fastball touched 100 mph. His slider was sharp. His splitter dropped off the table. Tampa Bay hitters looked overmatched the entire time he was on the mound. This was not a guy who looked compromised.
Dave Roberts pulled him after 65 pitches. That was the plan all along. Ohtani had thrown six innings in his last start. The Dodgers wanted to be conservative coming off the knee soreness. The plan worked exactly as designed.
Ohtani is now 6-3 with a 2.14 ERA on the mound. He has 92 strikeouts in 71 innings. He is striking out batters at the rate of a Cy Young winner. The Dodgers are using him as their de facto No. 2 starter behind Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
That is the pitching half. He is also hitting .295 with 22 home runs and 18 stolen bases as a designated hitter on his non-pitching days. He is on pace for another 40-home run, 25-steal season. Nothing about this is normal.
The two-way thing was supposed to fade after the elbow surgery in 2023. Ohtani came back as just a hitter in 2024 and won an MVP. He returned to pitching last year and immediately looked like one of the best starters in the National League. He is now somehow doing both at an elite level again.
The knee and blister situation will get monitored. The Dodgers are not going to push him through anything dangerous. There is a championship to win, and they need him for October. But every time he takes the mound and looks like this, the conversation about his durability gets a little quieter.
The Dodgers’ rotation has had its moments this year. Yamamoto has been incredible. Tyler Glasnow has been streaky. Tony Gonsolin has been a useful back-end starter. Ohtani at the top of the rotation gives them an Ace they can hand the ball to in every big game.
The NL West has felt different this year. The Padres are playing better. The Diamondbacks are competing. The Giants and Rockies are not. The Dodgers are 43-29 and lead the division by four games, but the margin is not as comfortable as recent seasons.
Wednesday’s start is the type of outing that pushes the Dodgers back toward their normal form. When Ohtani is right, the lineup is dangerous. When the rotation is healthy, the rotation is elite. Both of those were true against the Rays.
Tampa Bay just got dominated by a guy playing through a knee issue and a blister. That tells you everything you need to know about the gap between Ohtani at 80 percent and the rest of the league at 100. The Dodgers have a generational player, and Wednesday was another reminder.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
