Dodgers don't need Shohei Ohtani's bat, just his arm, in rout of Mets

Maddie Lee, Los Angeles Times on Apr 16, 2026

Published in Baseball

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Dodgers right-hander Shohei Ohtani’s spotless ERA finally got its first mark Wednesday. But in the Dodgers’ 8-2 victory on Wednesday, he held the Mets to just one run in six innings.

Ohtani’s streak of innings without giving up an earned run ended at 32 2/3, the longest of his career. He had 10 strikeouts Wednesday, the most he’s had in a regular-season start as a Dodger, and matching his effort in Game 4 of the 2025 National League Championship Series against the Brewers.

Ohtani faced just one over the minimum through the first four innings. Then in the fifth he issued two walks before facing Mets designated hitter MJ Melendez with one out and runners on first and second.

Melendez sent a second-pitch splitter into the right-field corner, and the ball bounced over the fence for a run-scoring ground-rule double.

Ohtani retired the next five batters he faced, striking out the side in the sixth.

The two-way phenom only had one job to worry about Wednesday.

For the first time since 2021, he was not also in the lineup as a hitter while pitching. The decision didn’t reflect a change in philosophy by the Dodgers.

“If it weren’t for the hit by pitch [Monday], he would’ve been DHing and pitching tonight,” manager Dave Roberts said before the game.

Ohtani was hit in the back of his right shoulder by a 94-mph sinker on Monday. Though that didn’t prevent him from serving as the designated hitter the first two games of the series, the Dodgers wanted to lighten the load Wednesday.

“Just feeling what gives him the best chance to stay loose during the outing, feel good,” Roberts said. “There’s still some soreness in there. When he’s hitting, there’s a component that he’s in the cage getting ready to hit, and if we can take that off his plate and just focus on one thing tonight, we felt — training staff, pitching coaches, myself — we just felt it was the best thing for him. So, once I told him, he completely understood.”

When asked what Ohtani’s initial reaction had been, Roberts widened his eyes in an impressively accurate impression of one of Ohtani’s patented facial expressions.

The next time Ohtani takes the mound, he’sis expected to also hit. But Roberts didn’t rule out again having Ohtani just pitch if a similar situation arises again.

“It’s something I’m going to keep an eye on if it makes sense, but not just kind of do it proactively,” Roberts said. “It’s something that’s … got to make sense to not have your best hitter not in the lineup.”

To account for Ohtani’s absence in the batting order Wednesday, Kyle Tucker moved up from No. 2 to leadoff, and Dalton Rushing served as the DH.

The Dodgers scored all eight runs via the long ball: a two-run shot from Hyeseong Kim, his first home run of the season, a solo blast from Teoscar Hernández, Rushing’s first career grand slam, and a solo homer from Tucker.

Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz was available Wednesday, for the first time since last Friday. But the Dodgers’ five-run eighth inning eliminated the save situation. Instead, right-hander Kyle Hurt made his first major-league appearance since 2024. He gave up a run and had three strikeouts.

Jackie Robinson Day

The Dodgers’ celebration of Jackie Robinson Day began with the annual reflection at the Jackie Robinson statue, with both teams in attendance. Speakers included Robinson’s granddaughters Sonya Pankey Robinson and Ayo Robinson, Roberts, and Bob Kendrick, the president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

“We make the rather bold assertion that Jackie’s breaking of the color barrier wasn’t just a part of the Civil Rights movement,” Kendrick said in his speech, “it was the beginning of the Civil Rights movement.”

He broke down the timeline: Robinson debuted with the Dodgers in 1947, years before the Supreme Court ruled on Brown vs. the Board of Education (1954) or Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Ala. (1955). The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was still a student at Morehouse College.

“If you don’t believe that one individual can indeed invoke change, you have to look no further than right here,” Kendrick said, pointing to the statue of Robinson. “Because what he did was incredibly difficult, under some of the most harsh circumstances you could ever imagine.”

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