Another Wednesday, that means it must be Ohtani on the bump day.
Just a few weeks ago people were wringing their hands about Shohei Ohtani being stellar on the mound, but putrid at the plate. Well, the two-way superstar has definitely turned things around with his bat.
In Tuesday night’s game, his first two at bats were a double and a triple. His reappearance of his old self at the plate came into play later, when he was intentionally walked in the seventh inning – which is the first time in 26 games
that he had been walked intentionally. He later came around to score what would be the winning run. In his last five games, Ohtani is 11-for-22 with a homer, a triple, and two doubles.
On the pitching side, Ohtani sits at 5-2 with a 0.82 ERA. Despite tossing six no-hit innings last week against the Colorado Rockies, Shohei didn’t actually have one of his best outings. He had a season low 56% strike rate and walked a season high four batters. He stated after the game he “just really couldn’t find it”.
Only seven current Diamondback players have faced Ohtani before, and all combined have 21 at bats against, with no homers and no RBI amongst them.
The Dodgers will face Zac Gallen, whom they have seen plenty of times. Gallen has been much better at home so far this season, going 3-1 with a 3.09 ERA as opposed to a 7.57 ERA on the road. The Dodgers did see him to start the season where they tagged him for four runs, but not until the fifth inning, which included a three-run homer off the bat of Andy Pages.
The Diamondback have been tough so far this series, with Arizona taking the first game 4-1, and almost completing a comeback, losing 6-5 in Tuesday’s game.
In that game, five relievers were needed to hold on to that win. Ohtani would do well to go deep into the game, at least the six he usually goes. Gallen is one of the weaker pitchers in the Diamondbacks arsenal, and Dodgers have done really well against right handers this season. Ohtani last pitched at Chase Field last September, where he went six scoreless innings with eight strikeouts.
Wednesday game info
- Teams: Dodgers at D-backs
- Ballpark: Chase Field, Phoenix
- Time: 6:40 p.m.
- TV: SportsNet LA
- Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)
