Shohei Ohtani\u2019s three straight strikeouts in the fourth inning of his final spring start Tuesday featured a different putaway pitch for each.<\/p>\n
He got Angels slugger Jorge Soler to whiff on a sweeper. Jeimer Candelario went down on a curveball. And Jo Adell struck out on a fastball.<\/p>\n
Pretty much everything was clicking for Ohtani heading into the regular season, even though it was only his second spring training start on the mound. In the Freeway Series finale, Ohtani recorded 11 strikeouts in four-plus innings. He held the Angels to four hits<\/a>, three of which were consecutive singles in the fifth.<\/p>\n For the first time in three years, Ohtani is set to begin the season as a fully healthy pitcher. And it will be the Dodgers<\/a>\u2019 first time managing his two-way schedule all year. Limited the last two seasons by his recovery and build-up from elbow surgery, Ohtani last made 20-plus starts in 2023<\/a> with the Angels.<\/p>\n \u201cThe desire is high,\u201d manager Dave Roberts said when asked about Ohtani\u2019s aim to pitch wall to wall. \u201cI think it\u2019s realistic. Then the bigger question is, how are we going to manage that and navigate it?\u201d<\/p>\n Thinking through the plan going into the season, Roberts floated the idea of giving Ohtani a little extra rest between starts. Dodgers starters are already on a six- to seven-day rotation. But a six-man starting pitching group gives the team flexibility as they map out their pitching plan.<\/p>\n \u201cMy intent is to be in the rotation under normal rest, normal circumstances,\u201d Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton last week in Arizona. \u201cNow if management thinks that I need extra rest, I\u2019ll take it. But I\u2019ll let management handle that. Just looking at our roster, we have a lot of pitchers. It doesn\u2019t hurt to rest more.\u201d<\/p>\n Ohtani\u2019s in-game limits, after a build-up slowed by his participation in the World Baseball Classic as a position player, will be adjusted before each start. But his Freeway Series outing Tuesday set him up well. He stretched out to 86 pitches.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re talking about the first game of the season, could he get through six innings? Could he touch the seventh? Yes,\u201d Roberts said Tuesday afternoon. \u201cBut he won\u2019t touch the eighth inning. So there\u2019s got to be some responsibility as far as how we manage him.\u201d<\/p>\n When it comes to awards, Ohtani\u2019s is going after a third World Series title. But his trophy case is well stocked with individual accolades too. He\u2019s won four MVPs, five All-Star selections, four Silver Sluggers, and a Rookie of the Year award.<\/p>\n The Cy Young, however, has remained elusive. He came close in 2022, when a 2.33 ERA and league-leading 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings earned him a fourth-place finish in the American League. It was the only time in his career that he crossed the 25-start threshold, with 28.<\/p>\n \u201cI would never want to sacrifice our chance of winning and performing in the postseason,\u201d Ohtani said. \u201cSo I think that\u2019s really the No. 1 goal in my mind. Just because I want to try to win the Cy Young and throw more innings, that\u2019s not necessarily the priority over winning a championship. So with that being said, if there\u2019s a situation where there\u2019s some injuries and I do have to pitch on shorter rest, I\u2019m happy to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n Would showing that he can make regular starts all year automatically put him in the Cy Young conversation?<\/p>\n \u201cOh yeah,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cBecause of just talent, ability, will. If he does that, he\u2019ll be in the conversation, absolutely. I have no doubt about that.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, besides reigning NL Cy Young winner Paul Skenes, Ohtani would also be competing for the award with his own teammate, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who enters the season with the edge.<\/p>\n If Ohtani continues to pitch like he did on Tuesday, however, he and the Dodgers will be in good shape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shohei Ohtani\u2019s three straight strikeouts in the fourth inning of his final spring start Tuesday featured a different…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2390],"tags":[291,7468,5,39,11578,26108,82107,1165,446,3223,82106,774,56,3224,3222,4,82103,11061,7377,1602,82105,468,1373,82104,1319],"class_list":["post-641901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-angels","tag-angels","tag-award","tag-baseball","tag-dodgers","tag-first-time","tag-four-plus-innings","tag-healthy-pitcher","tag-la","tag-la-angels","tag-laangels","tag-little-extra-rest","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesangels","tag-mlb","tag-nl-cy-young-conversation","tag-plan","tag-regular-season","tag-roberts","tag-seven-day-rotation","tag-shohei-ohtani","tag-start","tag-straight-strikeout","tag-year"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116287522922566704","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}