Ohtani (0.00 ERA) starts tonight. Here's how he has evolved as a pitcher (10 ET, ESPN)

We’ll be treated to the next sight of Shohei Ohtani as a two-way player on Wednesday night, when he takes his 0.00 ERA to the mound against the Mets at Dodger Stadium (10:10 p.m. ET, ESPN).

Here are eight things you need to know about this marquee matchup.

All stats updated through Monday unless noted otherwise.

• The first thing you must know about this game is how to find it. This game will be this season’s first one to air on ESPN, continuing MLB’s longstanding relationship with the network. From 1990-2025, ESPN carried Sunday Night Baseball, which shifted to NBCUniversal beginning this year. But as part of a new three-year rights agreement, ESPN will have a national midweek game package throughout the season, with the games available exclusively on its linear networks and the ESPN app.

• The Mets are one of two teams Ohtani has never faced as a pitcher in the regular season or postseason. The other is the Cubs. As a hitter, Ohtani has had considerable success against New York, with a .294/.417/.603 slash line, five home runs and 13 RBIs in 84 regular-season plate appearances entering Sunday. Only three current Mets hitters have faced Ohtani in the regular season. Marcus Semien is 4-for-20 against Ohtani, Luis Robert Jr. is 1-for-8, and Bo Bichette is 2-for-5. Bichette’s relative success against Ohtani carried over into the postseason, when the infielder slugged a three-run homer off Ohtani in Game 7 of the 2025 World Series.

• In each of his first two starts of the season, Ohtani completed six innings without allowing an earned run. After not pitching in 2024 while rehabbing from right elbow surgery and being limited to 47 regular-season innings in 2025, Ohtani is on pace to surpass his career-high 166 innings pitched for the Angels in 2022. That year, he finished fourth in AL Cy Young voting. Ohtani is the only pitcher in MLB to have made multiple starts this season without allowing an earned run. He has a career 2.93 ERA in the regular season and a 4.43 ERA in the postseason.

• Speaking of ERA, it’s still very early, but since anything is possible with Ohtani, it’s worth noting that the lowest ERA by a qualified starting pitcher in Dodgers history is Zack Greinke’s 1.66 mark from 2015, when he was the runner-up for the NL Cy Young Award. Of course, Bob Gibson’s 1.12 ERA for the 1968 Cardinals stands as the Modern Era record. And over the past decade, only four qualified starters have logged an ERA under 2.00 in a non-shortened season. It’s worth keeping all of that in mind whenever Ohtani is on the bump.

Qualified SP with sub-2.00 ERA in a non-shortened season since 2016
1. Jacob deGrom (w/ NYM): 1.70 in 2018
2. Justin Verlander (w/ HOU): 1.75 in 2022
3. Blake Snell (w/ TB): 1.89 in 2018
4. Paul Skenes (PIT): 1.97 in 2025

• Ohtani has leaned on his four-seam fastball through his first two starts. It’s his most-used pitch for the second straight season, and he’s throwing it 36.1% of the time. Hitters are just 2-for-15 against Ohtani’s heater this year, and since the start of 2025, he has allowed only 13 hits (including just three for extra bases) in 83 plate appearances ending on his four-seamer. That’s added up to a minuscule .240 slugging percentage, which is the second lowest against any starter’s four-seamer over the past two seasons (min. 75 plate appearances ending on it). Only the Giants’ Logan Webb (.227) has allowed a lower slugging percentage on his heater. By the way, the Mets’ .342 slugging percentage against four-seam fastballs this season ranks 26th in MLB.

• Ohtani’s breaking balls (his curveball, sweeper and slider) have also seen excellent results. Hitters are 0-for-6 against the curve, 1-for-8 off the sweeper and 0-for-1 off the slider thus far in 2026, with four total strikeouts against the three breaking pitches. Ohtani has a +3 pitcher run value on his breaking balls this season, which ranks in the 96th percentile of Major League hurlers.

• Ohtani has a variety of weapons on the mound with which he can flummox hitters. His repertoire features seven pitch types: a four-seamer, curveball, sweeper, splitter, sinker, slider and cutter. Of the 467 players who have thrown at least one pitch in 2026, Ohtani is one of just 16 whose arsenal features at least seven pitch types. Skenes, Yankees lefty Max Fried and Mets righty Kodai Senga are among the others. The pitcher who throws the most different pitches? The Royals’ Seth Lugo, with nine.

• Although we have focused on Ohtani’s pitching performance, we can’t overlook that he is also riding a 48-game on-base streak into Wednesday’s game. That ranks as the third-longest on-base streak in Dodgers franchise history. Next on the list is Hall of Famer Willie Keeler, who logged a 50-game streak across the 1900-01 seasons for the Brooklyn Superbas, who were rebranded as the Dodgers in 1911.