Shohei Ohtani will take another crack at recovering from his current downturn when the Los Angeles Dodgers play host to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday in the middle contest of a three-game series.
Ohtani is 2-for-16 with six strikeouts going back to Sunday when he returned from a short absence to attend the birth of his first child. But the three-time MVP has not been up to his standard all season, batting .250 with an .814 OPS.
He does have six home runs with 23 runs but has just eight RBIs.
“I don’t know if he’s trying to do something, trying too hard,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “There’s a couple walks in there. But there’s other times where he’s getting himself out instead of taking a walk if given to him.”
Friday figured to be a long night for the Dodgers anyway while up against Pirates ace Paul Skenes. Ohtani went 0-for-4, while the Dodgers were kept off the scoreboard for the second time this season in a 3-0 defeat.
While Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched for Los Angeles on Friday, fellow Japan countryman Roki Sasaki (0-1, 3.20 ERA) will take the mound Saturday. In his most recent start, the fifth of the rookie right-hander’s career, Sasaki gave up two runs on two hits and three walks in six innings but took the loss in a 4-3 defeat to the Texas Rangers.
Sasaki managed to extend his outing to a career best in innings, on just 78 pitches, even as his fastball registered 92 mph in the early innings, after he was nearly at 97 mph over his first four starts.
“My command of my fastball and my offspeed were pretty good, so I’m really happy with that,” Sasaki said through an interpreter. “I was surprised with the fastball velo in the first inning myself. But I was able to really kind of dig into what I needed to do and make some mechanical changes. I was able to increase the velo a little bit.”
The Pirates will counter with right-hander Mitch Keller (1-2, 4.18), who earned the win in his 2025 debut but has gone 0-2 with a 4.91 ERA in his last four starts. He gave up two runs on five hits over five innings of a no-decision against the Cleveland Guardians on Sunday.
Keller will look to continue a solid six-game road trip to the Los Angeles area for the Pirates, who are 3-1 against the Angels and Dodgers so far. Keller is 2-3 with a 7.54 ERA in five lifetime starts against the Dodgers.
Skenes set the blueprint for Keller on how to control the Dodgers when he gave up five hits with nine strikeouts and no walks in his 6 1/3 innings.
While the overall night was positive for Pittsburgh on Friday, leadoff man Oneil Cruz appeared to experience right side discomfort following a 117.6-mph RBI single to right field in the fifth inning. He was examined by a trainer but remained in the game.
Cruz belted home runs in the final two games of the series against the Angels and hit a 119.6 mph line out to end Thursday’s loss to the Angels before his blistering single Friday while scoring two runs.
“He just got good pitches to hit,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said of Cruz. “He’s not going outside the zone, and he got the barrel on the ball.”
–Field Level Media
