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Shohei Ohtani pitches 6 scoreless innings as Dodgers beat Guardians

April 1, 2026

LOS ANGELES — Items on Shohei Ohtani’s bucket list tend to get checked off.

The four-time league MVP has his eyes on a new prize this year – a Cy Young Award. Performances like Tuesday’s season pitching debut make it seem attainable.

Ohtani didn’t give up a hit until the fourth inning and allowed just that one in six scoreless innings as the Dodgers beat the Cleveland Guardians, 4-1, Tuesday night for their fourth win in the first five games of the season.

Ohtani’s spring preparations as a pitcher were compacted due to his time with Team Japan for the World Baseball Classic. He pitched in just two preseason games, but he made the most of them, holding the San Francisco Giants to one hit in 4⅓ innings in Arizona then striking out 11 Angels in four innings during the Freeway Series.

“The thing that stood out most was he had two starts with us and he realized that so there was an urgency,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Overtly, you couldn’t see it, but there was real intention to make sure he was dialed in in both starts and he was very good.”

Ohtani kept it on the same setting against the Guardians. He gave up two long fly balls in the first inning but struck out two in the second inning and retired the first seven Guardians in order before allowing a baserunner.

He walked two in the third inning but worked around it. A successful ABS challenge by the Dodgers flipped a 2-and-1 count to 1-and-2 and Ohtani got C.J. Kayfus to chase a curveball in the dirt for strike three to strand both runners.

Rhys Hoskins finally broke up Ohtani’s no-hit bid with two outs in the fourth, hooking a double down the left field line. He was stranded at second.

The Guardians put runners on with two outs again in the fifth (a hit batter) and sixth (Ohtani’s third walk of the game) but Ohtani went about his business retiring the side. He struck out Hoskins on a sweeper to end the sixth inning with his 87th pitch of the night – his sixth strikeout completing his pitching chores for the night.

Ohtani wasn’t at his most overpowering – he had modest totals of 11 swings-and-misses (five on his splitter). But he handled the Guardians’ lineup as easily as he scraped the mud off his cleats during a brief sixth-inning delay after a light rain mucked up the pitcher’s mound. Ohtani hasn’t given up a run in his past 22⅔ regular-season innings (the longest scoreless streak of his MLB pitching career).

The Dodgers didn’t give him any margin for error while he was on the mound.

The offense that has been stagnant since an eight-run Opening Day pushed across just one run in the first five innings. Three singles culminating in Andy Pages’ full-count, two-out liner to right field produced that run in the fourth.

Max Muncy doubled the lead with a solo home run off lefty reliever Kolby Allard in the bottom of the sixth. Four singles in the eighth (including Pages’ second RBI of the night) doubled it again.

Alex Vesia and Jack Dreyer each turned in a hitless inning in relief. A light but steady rain was falling over the last few innings and Edwin Diaz struggled with the wet conditions. Entering for the ninth inning in a non-save situation, he hit a batter and walked another before losing the shutout on a Brayan Rocchio RBI single before closing it out.

More to come on this story.

Orange County Register

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Shohei Ohtani pitches 6 scoreless innings as Dodgers beat Guardians

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