Shohei Ohtani struck out seven in six scoreless innings on Wednesday night against the San Francisco Giants, continuing his strong pitching start to 2026. He’s gone exactly six innings in each of his four starts and has only allowed two runs, one of them earned.
That gives Ohtani a minuscule 0.38 ERA so far this season, currently atop the National League. He doesn’t lead the majors because Angels right-hander José Soriano has been even more stingy, allowing only one run in 37 2/3 innings for a 0.24
ERA.
Ohtani will be on the leaderboard for one day, until Thursday when the Dodgers play their 25th game. Ohtani has 24 innings, and pitchers need at least one inning per team game played to qualify. He has been atop the NL in ERA after each one of his starts, continuing his league leading on an intermittent basis.
Ohtani pitched six scoreless innings on March 31 against the Cleveland Guardians, in the Dodgers’ fifth game of the season. His 0.00 ERA was tied with 17 other qualified National League pitchers at that point.
The Dodgers played their sixth game of the season on April 1, but didn’t play their seventh game until April 3, so Ohtani had two more days still with enough innings to qualify. At the end of the day on April 1, Ohtani was one of eight qualified NL pitchers with a 0.00 ERA, a group that trimmed down to six pitchers on April 2.
Ohtani made his second start on April 8 in Toronto, and pitched six more innings to give him 12 innings through the Dodgers’ 12 games to that point. He allowed one run that night to the Blue Jays but it was unearned, keeping his ERA at 0.00. Through April 12, Ohtani was tied with Eduardo Rodríguez of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Bryce Elder of the Atlanta Braves for the league lead.
The Dodgers were off on April 13, giving Ohtani one more day on the leaderboard, and through that day it was just him and Elder at the top with a 0.00 ERA.
The Dodgers using a six-man rotation meant Ohtani didn’t pitch again until April 15, the team’s 18th game of the season. He pitched exactly six innings again, giving him 18 innings and one more day of qualifying. The New York Mets scored a run off Ohtani, who also struck out 10 that night in the win and led the NL by himself with a 0.50 ERA. A Dodgers off day on April 16 meant another day for Ohtani atop the NL ERA heap.
On Wednesday against the Giants, Ohtani’s six scoreless innings gave him 24 innings through 24 Dodgers games, and one more day atop the NL.
Ohtani will fall off the pitching leaderboard on Thursday, when the Dodgers play their 25th game, and will likely continue most of the season. That’s the nature of being a two-way player and in a six-man rotation. It’s going to be hard for Ohtani to get to 162 innings on the season. In his three best pitching seasons with the Angels (2021-23), Ohtani pitched 130 1/3 innings, 166 innings, and 132 innings. He finished fourth in American League Cy Young Award voting in 2022, the one year he qualified for pitching leaderboards.
Here are the dates Ohtani has led the NL in ERA to date in 2026:
- March 31: 0.00 ERA (tied with 17 others)
- April 1: 0.00 ERA (tied with 7 others)
- April 2: 0.00 ERA (tied with 5 others)
- April 8: 0.00 ERA (tied with 2 others)
- April 9: 0.00 ERA (tied with Bryce Elder)
- April 15: 0.50 ERA
- April 16: 0.50 ERA
- April 22: 0.38 ERA
