The 88 Pitches From Ohtani That Tell You Everything About His Wild Season

Alright, Seattle, while we're all still buzzing about our M's grinding out that 5-4 win over the White Sox, let's talk about something else completely bonkers that went down across the league. Shohei Ohtani, that guy, just had a night that was straight-up Hollywood material, even if he plays for *that* team down south. He blasted a leadoff home run and then went on to throw five scoreless innings. Can you believe the audacity of this dude? The Dodgers won 4-0 against the Padres, pushing their lead in the NL West to a game and a half.

Leadoff Bombs and Unhittable Heat, Until it Wasn't

Our guy Kyle Hurt, a reliever for the Dodgers, literally called it before the game even started. He told his teammate, Paul Gervase, "He's going to do some superstar stuff today." And holy smokes, he delivered! Ohtani, in the lineup on his start day for the first time in almost a month, smacked a leadoff homer right off the bat. Get this: before Ohtani, nobody had ever batted leadoff *and* started pitching *and* homered to kick off a game. He's done it twice now, once in the 2025 NLCS and again on April 22, and now this. Talk about making history! He then went on to carve up the Padres' lineup for five scoreless innings, retiring the first nine batters in order. Hurt wasn't wrong when he said, "He's a superstar for a reason."

An 88-Pitch Rollercoaster: What It Means For The Workload

But here's the kicker, and this is where it gets interesting, even for us Emerald City faithful keeping tabs on the league. While the results were flawless, Ohtani himself admitted through an interpreter, "The results were good, as you saw, but the process wasn't that great." He needed a whopping 52 pitches just to get through those first three innings. By the fourth, his usual high-90s fastball was reportedly coming in a couple ticks slower. The Padres' lineup, including a struggling Fernando Tatis Jr., loaded the bases with one out in that fourth inning. Ohtani, on his 88th pitch, threw a first-pitch sweeper that resulted in an inning-ending double play. That was it. Eighty-eight pitches, his shortest start of the season. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was quick to say, "I think it's just another case in point that it's good for us to be mindful of the workload and just not take that for granted. But he's still pretty..." He knows what's up. Even with the shortest start, Ohtani's ERA dropped to an absurd 0.73. You know who else had an ERA that low through their first eight starts for the Dodgers? Fernando Valenzuela, way back in 1981. It's wild. So, while Ohtani is out there pulling off these jaw-dropping performances, it's a reminder of the grind these guys are on. Our M's just battled hard for that 5-4 win against the White Sox, and that's the kind of gritty play we love to see. With news like Crawford being open to playing third base with Emerson coming up, there's always something brewing here in Seattle. Let's keep that energy going for the next game and cheer on our boys. Go M's!

This article was created with AI assistance and reviewed by Seattle On Tap editorial staff. Always verify information with official team sources.