Shohei Ohtani makes his regular season pitching debut
Shohei Ohtani will take the pitcher’s mound for his first outing of the 2026 regular season
The middle game of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ series against the Cleveland Guardians will be the first pitching start for Shohei Ohtani, who coincidentally is the second in a series of Japanese pitchers. Roki Sasaki pitched in Monday night’s game, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto will pitch in Wednesday afternoon’s finale. Because of the World Baseball Classic, Ohtani only pitched in two games in Spring Training.
He went 1-1 with a 3. 24 ERA, striking out 15 batters across 8. 1 innings of work.
11 of those K’s came in his last outing a week ago against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. After that outing, both Ohtani and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts felt good about where Ohtani was in his preparation for the regular season. This will be the first in what Ohtani and the Dodgers organization hope will be a fully healthy season for Shohei that will see him take the mound 25 times.
Ohtani called every Dodger pitcher making 25 starts “ideal” after his first outing in Arizona. For how long this first outing will last, Roberts said the plan was about six innings. “Honestly, with Shohei, you’ve got to be willing to adapt,” Roberts said .