Shohei Ohtani pitches and homers as Dodgers rout Nationals
Shohei Ohtani produced a dazzling all-round performance as the Los Angeles Dodgers came from behind to rout the Washington Nationals 13-7 on Sunday.
Ohtani, making just his second appearance on the mound since undergoing elbow ligament surgery in 2023, recorded two strikeouts in an 18-pitch appearance at Dodger Stadium.
The Japanese superstar then followed up his lone inning with a huge offensive performance, blasting a three-run triple and a two-run home run as the Dodgers piled on the runs in the late innings to romp to victory.
Ohtani, the reigning National League MVP, only returned to pitching last Monday after a nearly two-year absence.
The 30-year-old is being eased back into the pitching rotation by the Dodgers, who have restricted him to two single-inning outings so far.
Ohtani tore ligaments in his right elbow just over two years ago and underwent Tommy John surgery, leaving him unable to pitch, although was still able to bat after joining the Dodgers on a 10-year, $700 million contract in December 2023.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Sunday that the team will continue to take a cautious approach with Ohtani's pitching as the season progresses.
"Right now, he's good with one inning," Roberts told reporters.
"It's just more trying to get a foundation, the building blocks, as he's taking at-bats and getting an inning here, and an inning there ... just erring on the side of caution.
"He's understanding where he's at, and where we're at. As time goes on we'll get to a certain point, but there's no sense in rushing it."
Last year, Ohtani became the first player in history to score 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season — a statistical feat once regarded as unreachable — before helping the Dodgers win last year's World Series.
Sunday's home run was his 26th of the season, a tally that has helped the Dodgers move to the top of the National League West division.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Japan Times
an hour ago
- Japan Times
Pacers' 'hearts dropped' after Tyrese Haliburton's injury in Game 7
Indiana Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said his team's "hearts dropped" after seeing Tyrese Haliburton exit early with an injury in their loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 7 of the NBA Finals on Sunday. Haliburton — the pivotal figure in Indiana's run through the playoffs — collapsed to the hardwood in agony early in the first quarter and did not return. The 25-year-old, who had been nursing a right calf strain since last week, hobbled off the court supported by Pacers backroom staff and was later seen on crutches following Indiana's 103-91 defeat. "What happened with Tyrese, all of our hearts dropped," Carlisle said in a postgame news conference. "But he will be back. I don't have any medical information about what may or may not have happened, but he'll be back in time, and I believe he'll make a full recovery." Haliburton's father told ESPN earlier that his son had suffered an Achilles injury. The Pacers said Haliburton exited with a "lower right leg injury." Carlisle, meanwhile, saluted Haliburton's role in an against-the-odds run to the brink of an NBA championship. "He authored one of the great individual playoff runs in the history of the NBA with dramatic play after dramatic play," Carlisle said. "It was just something that no one's ever seen, and he did it as one of 17. You know, that's the beautiful thing about him. As great a player as he is, it's always a team thing. So, our hearts go out to him." Carlisle said Haliburton had helped pump up the squad in the locker room at halftime, when the Pacers had taken a slender one-point lead at the break. However, the game swung decisively in Oklahoma City's favor after the Thunder outscored the Pacers 34-20 in the third quarter. "We needed to come out of the locker room and be better in the first five minutes of the third quarter. We just weren't," Carlisle said. "I don't have the whole sequence of events, but they made some great plays. We got off to a show start, and that quarter was the killer."
Japan Times
2 hours ago
- Japan Times
Thunder get past Pacers in Game 7 to claim NBA title
The Oklahoma City Thunder crowned a dazzling season with an NBA title on Sunday, pulling away relentlessly in the second half to beat the injury-hit Indiana Pacers 103-91 in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 29 points and handed out 12 assists, and the Thunder's swarming defense finally proved too much for a Pacers team that lost talisman Tyrese Haliburton to a leg injury just seven minutes into the contest. The underdog Pacers hung tough and held a 48-47 lead at halftime, but the Thunder outscored them 34-20 in the third quarter and pushed the lead to as many as 22 points in the fourth. "It doesn't feel real, so many hours, so many moments, so many emotions, so many nights of disbelief," Gilgeous-Alexander said, his voice breaking. "It's crazy to know that we're all here. "But this group worked for it, this group put in the hours, and we deserved this." Gilgeous-Alexander put himself among some of the game's greats as he earned NBA Finals MVP honors to go with his regular-season MVP and scoring title along with his first championship. Jalen Williams scored 15 of his 20 points in the second half, and Chet Holmgren added 18 points, eight rebounds, a steal and five of the Thunder's eight blocked shots. A crowd of 18,203 at Paycom Center was given some tense moments as the Pacers chipped away at the deficit, but 23 Indiana turnovers leading to 32 Thunder points were ultimately too much for the Pacers to overcome. The Thunder, who led the league with 68 regular-season wins, captured their first title since the club's controversial move to Oklahoma City in 2008. The franchise had won it all in 1979 as the Seattle SuperSonics. The Pacers — three-time American Basketball Association champions in the 1970s —remain in search of a first title since joining the NBA in the NBA-ABA merger. Haliburton, already nursing a right calf strain when the Pacers won Game 6 to force the first Game 7 since 2016, had scored nine points — all on three-pointers — when he went down as he tried to drive past Gilgeous-Alexander. Haliburton's right leg gave out, and he sprawled forward, slapping the court in pain and disappointment. Teammates gathered around him before he was helped off the court and to the locker room, supported and hopping on one leg with a towel over his head. In his absence, the Pacers dug in. Down by three after the first quarter, they took a 43-42 lead on a three-pointer by Bennedict Mathurin with 2:02 left in the second quarter. Oklahoma City would take the lead again before Andrew Nembhard drilled a step-back three-pointer with 4.3 seconds left to put the Pacers up 48-47 at halftime. The first half featured 10 lead changes, both teams coming out with determination on the defensive end with everything at stake. The three-point shot was an early difference-maker for the Pacers, who connected on eight of 16 from beyond the arc in the first half, but had just three after the break. The Thunder struggled early from long range, but Gilgeous-Alexander made his first three-pointer of the night with 8:16 left in the third, Holmgren followed with another 3-pointer and Jalen Williams added another —with the quick 9-0 run giving Oklahoma City a 65-56 lead that set the stage for the rest of the game. "We had 24 minutes to go get it — we had 24 minutes to finish our season," Gilgeous-Alexander said of the Thunder's mindset coming out for the third. "It was either gonna be bad or it was going to be pretty. We did everything we could." Mathurin led the Pacers with 24 points off the bench. Pascal Siakam and T.J. McConnell added 16 points apiece and Nembhard scored 15. But the famously resilient Pacers, who rallied from a 10-15 season start and authored a string of stirring comeback wins, finally came up short.
Kyodo News
2 hours ago
- Kyodo News
Baseball: Ohtani tosses shutout inning, gets 5 RBIs with homer in win
KYODO NEWS - 37 minutes ago - 12:07 | Sports, All Shohei Ohtani pitched a shutout inning before blasting his National League-leading 26th home run and driving in five runs as the Los Angeles Dodgers came from behind to overpower the Washington Nationals 13-7 on Sunday. The two-way star, who allowed a run over one inning in his pitching debut for the Dodgers on Monday, this time struck out two swinging in a faultless 18-pitch outing at Dodger Stadium. "I think I managed to pitch more relaxed than last time," said Ohtani, continuing his comeback after his right elbow surgery in September 2023. "You are seen as a starter once you can throw more than five innings. I hope to keep making progress even if it's bit by bit." "I'm coming back faster than I was expecting. My confidence is growing that I can get back to a condition even better than before (the surgery). There are still lots of things to fix but I want to improve one thing at a time." After drawing a walk and scoring on Max Muncy's sixth-inning grand slam that turned the game around at 4-3, Ohtani cleared the bases with a triple down the right field line off Ryan Loutos to extend the Dodgers lead to 7-3 in a seven-run seventh. Ohtani then connected on a 1-0 four-seamer from Jackson Rutledge and sent it over the left-center field wall for two runs in the eighth, ending his seven-game home run drought. "I won't be increasing my number of pitches or innings at once, of course," Ohtani said. "I hope to increase them gradually. Elevating the quality is the most important thing at the moment." In Chicago, Seiya Suzuki hit two homers in a game for the fourth time this season during the Cubs' 14-6 loss to the Seattle Mariners, becoming the only second Japanese player in Major League Baseball to hit 20 home runs in three straight seasons after Ohtani. Suzuki pulled a first-pitch four-seamer from Logan Gilbert (2-2) in the first to cut the Cubs' deficit to 2-1 before blasting another off the right-hander, a 1-1 splitter, for two runs in the fifth to again pull his team back within a run of the Mariners at 5-4. "I wanted to pay the team back with my batting," Suzuki said after making defensive errors in the third and fifth. "I was upset with myself throughout." Related coverage: Baseball: Shohei Ohtani 1-for-3 with RBI as Dodgers hold off Nationals 6-5 Baseball: Yamamoto takes loss for Dodgers as Padres escape sweep Baseball: Suzuki's 3-run homer lifts Cubs past Brewers
