Colorado Rockies game no. 127 thread: Shohei Ohtani vs. Tanner Gordon

Ohtani will make his Coors Field pitching debut on Wednesday

Summarized by AI ⓘ

What is the story about?

It’s been over four years since Shohei Ohtani pitched against the Rockies. His lone start against Colorado came in Los Angeles when he was an Angel in 2021. He gave up one run on five hits, including a homer from Dom Nuñez, in seven innings with five strikeouts to lead the Angels to a 6-2 win.

A lot has changed since then. Ohtani is now a Dodger. The Rockies roster has completely changed as not one Rockie who played in that game will play on Wednesday (only Sam Hilliard, who is currently in Triple-A

Albuquerque, and Germán Márquez, who is on the IL, remain with the organization.

Ohtani also had Tommy John surgery in 2024 and has slowly climbed back to the mound this year. In his nine starts, he’s 0-0 with a 3.47 ERA with 32 strikeouts and five walks in 23 1/3 innings. While he’s slowly ramped up from one to two to three and then four and 4 1/3 innings in his last two starts, Ohtani’s fastball is faster, his once-shut-down splitter is gone and his slider is his new nasty strikeout pitch (10 strikeout victims have fallen to it so far this season).

The good news for Colorado (36-90) is that the Dodgers (72-54) have only won four of the nine games that Ohtani has started, and L.A. has lost the last three with Ohtani on the mound. Tanner Gordon (3-5, 7.98 ERA) will look to keep the Rockies in the game and help the Rockies extend that streak and go ahead 2-1 in the four-game series against the Dodgers.

Wednesday will mark Gordon’s ninth start of the year for the Rockies. Gordon went through a rough stretch when he went 0-3 in three starts where he surrendered 23 earned runs, including three homers, in only 10 1/3 innings with two walks and nine strikeouts. He looked much better in his last start when he gave up three runs on five hits in five innings and picked up a win in a 4-3 victory over Arizona.

In other news, happy birthday to the Toddfather!