Shohei Ohtani looked playoff-ready Tuesday. The Dodgers’ bullpen, less so.
In what will almost certainly be his final pitching start of the regular season, the Los Angeles star threw six innings for the first time in his Dodgers career against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The last time he lasted so long was Aug. 9, 2023, during his time with the Los Angeles Angels.
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They were a good 6 innings, with 8 strikeouts, 5 hits, 0 walks and 0 runs allowed on 91 pitches. He topped out at 101.2 mph with his four-seam fastball and was still sitting at 99 in his sixth inning of work.
That performance wasn’t enough to protect the Dodgers from their bullpen, though, as the unit allowed five runs in three innings of work in a 5-4 walk-off win for the host Diamondbacks, with closer Tanner Scott allowing the game-winning hit to Geraldo Perdomo.
This season is Ohtani’s first as a pitcher with the Dodgers after missing all of last season as he rehabbed from UCL surgery at the end of 2023. The Dodgers have been cautious to an extreme with bringing him back, increasing his max innings only one at a time every few starts.
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Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters last month the plan was to keep Ohtani limited to a five-inning maximum for the rest of the regular season, but he said before Tuesday’s game the team was reversing course.
From Dodger Blue:
“I think it’s just more of, I mentioned it after his last start, for him to see it, for us to see it, to give us a little more options in the postseason and reach a marker we haven’t reached up to this point,” Roberts explained.
“And just feeling like we’ve got a really, really solid base. For me, the conversations, and I just don’t like the bait and switch. I feel really good with the conversation I had with Shohei about how today could potentially play out.”
Ohtani looking his best in his longest start is certainly a welcome development for the Dodgers. The right-hander has looked particularly lethal over his past four starts, with 27 strikeouts in 19 2/3 innings and a 0.46 ERA (one earned run allowed).
The start also sets up Ohtani to be the Dodgers’ pitcher in Game 1 of their likely upcoming wild-card series next Tuesday. The club clinched the playoffs over the weekend and holds a 1.5-game lead over the San Diego Padres for the NL West entering Wednesday.
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What L.A. does after Ohtani pitching-wise is a bit less nailed down, as Tuesday demonstrated.
What is the Dodgers’ postseason pitching plan?
For the past two seasons, the Dodgers have entered the postseason with the bare minimum amount of starting pitching and a well-stocked bullpen. They have the opposite problem in 2025.
This year, the Dodgers are on track to enter October with six viable starting pitchers: Ohtani, Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw and Emmet Sheehan. It seems likely Ohtani, Snell, Yamamoto and Glasnow will form the postseason rotation, with Sheehan and Kershaw coming out of the bullpen if they make the postseason roster at all.
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Because Sheehan has relief experience, the bigger question would be Kershaw, but Roberts said Friday the Dodgers will likely have a spot for the legendary left-hander.
In addition, Roberts said Tuesday that rookie Roki Sasaki will be activated Wednesday and serve as a reliever, hoping to recover some of the hype that defined his entrance into MLB.
Any reinforcements will be welcome for the bullpen, which has been bad for most of the season and horrendous over the past month or so. In the Dodgers’ seven losses since Sept. 4, two relievers have taken the loss every time: Blake Treinen five times and Scott twice.
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It’s unclear what the Dodgers can do when those two guys and Kirby Yates have been awful over the past month. That trio received a total of $111 million last offseason to anchor the L.A. bullpen.
It’s tempting to call for addition by subtraction with that group, but it’s not like the team has much waiting in the wings. At the very least, Michael Kopech, one of the Dodgers’ best relievers last postseason, and trade deadline acquisition Brock Stewart are also possibilities to return from the IL for the playoffs.
There are still some effective relievers in the Dodgers’ bullpen, like Alex Vesia and Anthony Banda, but it’s been a mess all September, ranking sixth-worst in MLB with a 5.23 ERA. All that can be said is the unit will probably look a bit different in October.
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