Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani has been battling a blister on his finger recently, and it emerged on Wednesday, but he still allowed just three runs in seven innings of work.
Ohtani was battling his command all night long for the most part, pushing his velocity up during the outing to get out of jams.
The command problem has been a recurring issue over his last handful of starts.
He has not been pinpointed as he was at the start of the campaign, but his ERA remains a low 1.06, which is shocking at this point in the year, given his workload.
What Shohei Ohtani did well vs. the Pirates
Ohanti did an elite job of pumping up his velocity during his start, averaging 0.8 MPH on his fastball, higher than his season average.
He got three strikeouts on the pitch, but only four whiffs on 43 total fastballs. Ohtani had another six whiffs on his sweeper and one on his curveball.
In fact, his velocity was up on all of his pitches across the board, really amping things up when they are not going smoothly.
Ohtani has done this from time to time when he has faced runners in scoring position during the season. He used a similar pitch mix, relying on the sweeper-fastball combination with some curveballs mixed in.
Shohei Ohtani’s blemishes
He had a minimal amount of chase, with only tempting hitters 22% of the time to swing on pitches out of the zone. Ohtani also got behind early on in the count, having a first-pitch strike on 34% of batters faced.
Going forward, he could use a healthier mix, adding more curveballs and splitters. Also, more use of his sinker could help with easier outs and some weaker contact.
Really, the command stands out as the biggest weakness. He needs to attack hitters more often to go deeper in games if he wants the Cy Young award.
Ohtani did enough to earn the win, and all things considered, it was a good start. However, he sets his own bar high and needs adjustments next time to go deeper and keep his run total low.
