SAN FRANCISCO -- Shohei Ohtani skipped off the mound, letting out a roar as he escaped the only real jam he had been in all evening long.
He had just struck out Giants designated hitter Casey Schmitt with a pair of runners in scoring position in the sixth inning. With opposing starter Tyler Mahle dealing, Ohtani knew his margin for error was razor-thin, and he kept the game in a scoreless tie by getting Schmitt to swing through a sweeper that was well off the plate.
"Just considering the game score," Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton, "it was really important not to give the first run of the game."
When Ohtani has taken the mound this season, the Dodgers have been able to depend on him emptying the tank. And while he left everything he had on the mound in his fourth pitching start, L.A. could not hold on after lefty reliever Jack Dreyer surrendered a three-run homer in the seventh to Patrick Bailey and the offense was shut out for the first time this year in Wednesday night's 3-0 loss at Oracle Park.
Ohtani struck out seven and allowed five hits without walking a batter across six scoreless innings, lowering his ERA to a near-pristine 0.38. He hit triple digits seven times, five of which came in his final two innings.
Since the earned run became an official statistic in the National League in 1912, Ohtani is the fourth Dodger to pitch at least 20 innings and allow one or zero earned runs in his first four appearances of the season, joining Kenta Maeda (2016), Fernando Valenzuela (1981 and '85) and Wheezer Dell (1916).
The Giants faced Ohtani when he made his spring pitching debut in late March. They noticed a difference in how he pitched with a month's worth of starts under his belt, in a real game.
"Regardless of when it was in the timeline of Spring Training, that was a little more getting his work in," Giants manager Tony Vitello said. "Tonight, it looked like he was going for throats, and it was pretty good stuff."
While Ohtani was a force on the mound, his on-base streak came to an end at 53 games -- tied with Shawn Green for the longest by a Dodger since the team moved to L.A. in 1958.
Ohtani effectively scattered the few baserunners he allowed, working around the two base hits he gave up in the first inning by striking out three hitters. He followed the opening frame with three perfect innings.
In the sixth inning, the Giants had something going against Ohtani when Matt Chapman singled and Rafael Devers doubled, putting a pair of runners in scoring position with two outs. But Ohtani got out of that jam with his strikeout of Schmitt, capping his most stressful inning of the contest.
Because of that, manager Dave Roberts decided that Ohtani's night would be over after six innings and 91 pitches. But in the next inning, Dreyer gave up the lead.
Ohtani would have liked to get into the seventh inning, but he recognized that he would have needed to be more efficient earlier in the game in order to start another frame.
"If I had the lead," he said, "then I think I would have been able to pitch to contact and reduce the pitch count. It was just reading the situation, the game score, and I just had to prioritize getting outs."
One of the challenges that comes with Ohtani's extraordinary two-way talent is being mindful of using him the right way. Ohtani getting out of the sixth inning could have been a reason to keep going with him in the seventh; Roberts instead saw it as the right place to end his night.
"I think that as we all watch pitchers, certainly starting pitchers, when they get to a crescendo, a climax in the game, and they exhaust that adrenaline, that emotion, it’s hard to manufacture that again the next inning. Then you add in the stress," Roberts said. "So again, it’s April. I’m not gonna push any of our guys to the point for something else to happen.”
Perhaps the game could have unfolded differently had Ohtani stayed in, but the Dodgers are anticipating him having moments like these six months from now, in the postseason. The short term is important, but their eyes are on the long term.