LOS ANGELES -- Shohei Ohtani did his best to ease any lingering doubts about his ailing left knee and a blister on his right hand as he cruised through his first four innings against the Rays on Wednesday afternoon.
Then came the fifth, when Tampa Bay handed him his toughest inning of the 2026 campaign.
Ohtani gave up a season-high four earned runs -- which all scored in the fifth inning -- before the Dodgers came back to secure a sweep of the Rays in a 5-4 victory. He struck out five, walked one and allowed a season-high seven hits across six innings as his ERA rose to 1.47, the second-lowest mark among Major Leaguers who have pitched at least 50 innings behind Jacob Misiorowski's 1.34.
"It’s just part of the game," Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. "There’s not a lot of situations where you feel 100%, so I just took it as that, and it’s big that we were able to win a game like this."
Although Ohtani was not in the starting lineup, he pinch-hit for designated hitter Miguel Rojas in the sixth inning after the Dodgers had taken back the lead on a Freddie Freeman two-run homer, taking Ohtani off the hook for a potential loss. The Dodger Stadium faithful roared in anticipation before Ohtani grounded out on the first pitch. L.A. lost the DH for the rest of the game as a result.
For manager Dave Roberts, the decision came down to giving the Dodgers their best chance to get ahead, and once they had the lead, to extend it.
"I talked to [Ohtani], and he said he felt really comfortable about taking the at-bat," Roberts said. "It was the only chance we would have to hit him in that inning. … If we were ahead, would I have fired that bullet? Probably less likely, but again, there isn't much cost if he feels like he can take the at-bat, whether you're up one or down one, or whatever."
For the first time this season, Ohtani has allowed multiple earned runs in back-to-back pitching starts. Wednesday also marked the second time that Ohtani has given up more than one run in an inning this year. The first instance came last week in Pittsburgh.
Ohtani is dealing with some residual soreness in his left knee that caused him to miss one game as a hitter last Friday. There was some question of whether he would make his next start -- especially because Ohtani had said that the knee issue may have stemmed from something being off with his pitching mechanics -- but he ultimately took the mound as scheduled on Wednesday.
After beginning his outing with four scoreless innings, Ohtani walked Victor Mesa Jr. to open the fifth. Former Dodger Hunter Feduccia followed with a line-drive double to left-center. Taylor Walls got the Rays on the board with a sacrifice fly.
The next five Rays batters reached base. Yandy Díaz tied the game with an RBI single. After a Jonathan Aranda base hit, Ohtani got Cedric Mullins to tap a grounder to first base that should have been the second out of the inning. But Ohtani was slow to cover the bag and Freeman was just far enough away that Mullins reached safely. A run-scoring fielder's choice from Junior Caminero and an RBI single from Richie Palacios capped the scoring at four runs before Ohtani got Chandler Simpson, his ninth batter of the inning, to ground out.
Ohtani threw 26 pitches in the fifth inning and aggravated a blister that he has been dealing with for his past few starts. But with his overall pitch count still low, Ohtani came back out and tossed a 1-2-3 sixth inning against the same three batters who had started the rally against him in the fifth.
The innings outside of the fifth may have been more reflective of how well Ohtani was actually throwing the ball, but the reality is that he has allowed eight runs (seven earned) in his past two starts after allowing just seven runs (five earned) in his first 10 starts.
Even with the knee and blister issues, the Dodgers see little reason to be concerned about Ohtani. That his past two starts have been such stark outliers speaks to the high standard he has set with his overall body of work.
"Obviously, we expect close to perfection out of Sho every time he goes out there. So does he, out of himself," catcher Dalton Rushing said. "But there’s no [reason] to worry at all."