Shohei Ohtani is looking like a formidable force on the mound as October baseball approaches. The Los Angeles Dodgers’ two-way star had his third straight scoreless outing on Tuesday night against the Arizona Diamondbacks, throwing a season-high six innings and striking out eight.
The right-hander’s fastball was consistently in the 98-100 mph range, hitting 101.2 on one delivery and often overpowering the D-backs hitters. He gave up five hits, all singles. He also started an athletic double play to end the fifth, darting off the mound to field a soft grounder from James McCann and firing to Tommy Edman at second, who threw to first.
The 31-year-old Ohtani has slowly built up his pitch count as he returns from elbow surgery that kept him off the mound for the entire 2024 season. He threw a season-high 91 pitches in his 100th career big league mound start.
The Dodgers led 4-0 when Ohtani left the game, but the D-backs rallied against the bullpen for a 5-4 victory. Ohtani, who has 53 homers this season, batted leadoff and went 0 for 3 with a walk in his first four plate appearances.
Ohtani worked five hitless innings in his last start, on Sept. 16 against the Philadelphia Phillies.