What makes Shohei Ohtani a one-of-a-kind superstar in professional sports is that he's both an MVP-caliber player on the plate and on the mound. For the Los Angeles Dodgers, however, they had to wait until this season for Ohtani to return to the mound, and entering play on Tuesday, the reigning NL MVP was sporting an ERA of 3.75 in 12 starts (36.0 innings). The Dodgers have been very careful with his arm up to this point, although he was dominant on Tuesday — as he no-hit the Philadelphia Phillies through five innings while striking out five.
This put Dodgers manager Dave Roberts in such a difficult position. Ohtani's season-high in innings pitched was five full innings, and his season-high in total pitches thrown was 87 back on the 27th of August against the Cincinnati Reds. After five innings against the Phillies, Ohtani was at just 68 pitches — suggesting that he had more left in the tank.
Alas, Roberts did not want to take any chances. What ensued was a major disaster; the Dodgers brought in Justin Wrobleski to begin the sixth inning and he promptly allowed five earned runs — giving the Phillies the lead in the inning and prompting some major boos to rain in Dodger Stadium.
After the game, Roberts explained his rationale behind pulling Ohtani earlier than one would think he should have been.
“He wasn’t going to go back out,” Roberts bluntly said, saying that the Dodgers don't intend for Ohtani to pitch in more than five innings, per Michael J. Duarte of NBC LA.
It's one thing for the Dodgers to hold firm to the plan they've set for themselves prior to the game. They are simply erring on the side of caution considering that Ohtani is also their best hitter. But would it not have made more sense if they based it more on pitch count than innings pitched?
Dodgers bullpen loses the plot in loss vs. Phillies
Wrobleski will draw most of the headlines for his disastrous sixth inning appearance, but the Dodgers were able to tie the game in the eighth inning anyway, with Ohtani hitting a home run to lead off the inning and Alex Call tying the game with a sac fly later in the inning.
But then the Dodgers bullpen wasn't done making a mess of itself; Blake Treinen allowed a three-run home run to unheralded Phillies hitter Rafael Marchan and they ended up losing, 9-6.
