SAN FRANCISCO — José Soriano leads the major leagues with a 0.24 earned-run average. It’s hard to think of something the Angels could do to make him better.
Shohei Ohtani ranks second with a 0.38 ERA. It’s not so hard to think of something the Dodgers could do to make him better.
On Wednesday, however, that might not have turned the Dodgers into winners. The San Francisco Giants won in the unlikeliest of ways: on one swing, a three-run home run from Patrick Bailey, a catcher who opened play batting .145 and had not hit a home run since last season. After Ohtani pitched six shutout innings, Bailey homered off Jack Dreyer in the seventh.
That was not the only unlikely performance: The winning pitcher was Tyler Mahle, who pitched seven shutout innings for his first victory in 10 months. Mahle started the game with an 0-3 record and 7.23 ERA.
That was the ballgame: Giants 3, Dodgers 0, with San Francisco clinching the series and the Dodgers losing for the fourth time in five games. In two games against the Giants, the Dodgers have scored one run.
“They’ve executed well the past two games,” Ohtani said. “At the same time, and this is including myself, I could have been a little more creative. In the at-bats we are going through, we should be able to score.”
Ohtani went hitless in four at-bats, striking out once. His on-base streak ended at 53 games, five shy of Duke Snider’s franchise record.
He is batting .258 with an .814 OPS. His career numbers: .281 with a .955 OPS.
“As long as I feel good overall, then the result will follow. That hasn’t been the case,” Ohtani said. “It’s not horrible, but it is something I have experienced in the past, April being kind of like this.”
Shohei Ohtani pitches against the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday.
(David M. Barreda / Los Angeles Times)
Kyle Tucker, who bats second behind Ohtani, is hitless in eight at-bats this series with four strikeouts. He is batting .233 with a .676 OPS, the lowest among the Dodgers regulars.
“He’s clearly just not comfortable,” Roberts said. “And he’s frustrated, doing extra work with the hitting guys, but I don’t right now have an answer. I think when he does get a pitch in his zone, whether it’s not putting a good swing on it, or getting beat — yeah, I don’t really have an answer for that.”
On the mound, Ohtani was brilliant, giving up five hits and walking none, striking out seven.
Ohtani threw seven pitches at 100 mph, including the first pitch to the first batter he faced and the first pitch to the 23rd and last batter he faced.
That came with two out and two on in the sixth inning, and immediately after the Giants got their only extra-base hit off Ohtani, a double by Rafael Devers.
Shohei Ohtani reacts after he struck out Casey Schmitt of the Giants to end the sixth inning.
(Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)
On his final pitch, Ohtani struck out Casey Schmitt, then twirled off the mound, pumping his fist and letting out a yell of delight.
Roberts said that inning taxed Ohtani to the point there was no consideration about sending him out for the seventh inning, at 91 pitches.
“If I had the lead,” Ohtani said, “then I think I would have been able to pitch to contact and reduce the pitch count.”
That lack of offense fed into a renewed debate about whether Ohtani and his team might be better off if he did not hit on days he pitched.
In his career, Ohtani is batting .185 as a pitcher, with three home runs in 65 at-bats, according to Baseball Reference.
On the other hand, who could forget the three-home run, 10-strikeout show that Ohtani put on in the National League Championship Series clincher last October?
Even if his batting performance on pitching days might not live up to his usual otherworldly standards, would you really submit a lineup with nine batters, but not the one who hit 55 home runs last year and 54 the year before?
And, if not Ohtani, who would the Dodgers use as a designated hitter?
For now, Dave Roberts said, the Dodgers have not had a conversation with Ohtani about whether he should pitch and hit in the same game.
“I’m going to continue to keep my eye on it,” Roberts said. “I think everything should be on the table. But again, you have to look at what’s the alternative?
Roberts said he understands the appeal of using the DH to give a position player a break from the field, the so-called “half-day off” that could be particularly valuable on a team with the oldest collection of position players in the major leagues.
He also could use backup catcher Dalton Rushing, who is batting .414 over nine games, with seven home runs in 29 at-bats. The only Dodger with more home runs: Max Muncy, with eight in 82 at-bats.
“Dalton is swinging the bat well, but no one was saying that two weeks ago,” Roberts said. “He’s on a heater. He’s swinging the bat well. Let’s just keep monitoring it. I’ll keep monitoring it and making decisions.”
Ohtani said he would defer to Roberts but stopped short of endorsing the idea of restricting his hitting to days on which he does not pitch.
“I’ll always let the manager make that final decision, and I’m always going to be prepared that, when I’m starting, I’m hitting. But, if it makes sense as a team to occasionally put a guy in as a DH or hit later [in the batting order,] that’s fine as well,” Ohtani said.
“I wouldn’t want to say more aside from that.”
Rushing downplays incident with Jung Hoo Lee 
Jung Hoo Lee is tagged out at home by Dalton Rushing during the sixth inning Tuesday.
(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)
The Dodgers concluded a peaceful if unsuccessful game here Tuesday, and then the waves hit: On social media, catcher Dalton Rushing had become the newest enemy among Giants fans.
In the sixth inning of Tuesday’s game, Rushing tagged out Jung Hoo Lee at home plate to end the inning. Lee, who tried to step around Rushing and then reach behind him to tag the plate, then slid awkwardly and sat up in discomfort.
Television cameras caught Rushing, who walked toward the Dodgers’ dugout, looking back toward Lee, shrugging and saying something.
The Bay Area news site SF Gate said Rushing was “crudely dismissing the injury with an NSFW phrase,” with the first word a four-letter expletive. Rushing said Wednesday he said nothing disparaging toward Lee.
Lee left the game with what the Giants listed as a quadriceps injury but was in the starting lineup Wednesday. In an indication this might not be a crisis after all, neither Roberts nor Giants manager Tony Vitello was asked about it during their pregame interview sessions.
Rushing was not in the starting lineup Wednesday but is expected to be Thursday, and he planned to check in with Lee to ensure he was not seriously hurt. Rushing said he already checked with one of Lee’s South Korean countrymen, Dodgers infielder Hyeseong Kim.
“To make sure he was OK. That’s the biggest thing,” Rushing said. “That’s the only thing that matters. Hopefully, he did not take it the way it was put out. I’ll be sure to say something to him face to face [Thursday], making sure he’s OK. There was nothing really directed at him. He’s a great guy.”
Rushing said he was unaware Lee was hurt.
“No, I thought it was just a weird slide,” Rushing said. “As long as he’s OK and he doesn’t think that I’m coming at him or any of those guys over there, that’s the biggest thing for me. I don’t care what other people put out there or say. I was just trying to play the game, play the game hard.”
Rushing said he was not frustrated with Lee.
“It was kind of an awkward slide, and that’s all it was,” Rushing said. “There wasn’t anything else added to it.”
If he was not frustrated with Lee, was he frustrated with himself? No, he said.
“I play with fire,” Rushing said. “Everybody that has ever played with me, everyone that has watched me play knows that. Whatever people want to make of it, I hope it’s not negative. I just hope he’s OK.”
Rushing declined to say exactly what the cameras caught him saying.
“I used a word, but it was not what was said that was said. I’ll just leave it at that. There was no direction toward him.
“I just think some people make something out of nothing.”