Dodger Details: Shohei Ohtani's milestone two-way day, Max Muncy's impact and a tough loss

New York Times

3 days ago

LOS ANGELES — If there were any lingering concerns about Shohei Ohtani's health, his most emphatic two-way performance in a Los Angeles Dodgers uniform might have put that to bed.
Ohtani flashed a fastball against the St. Louis Cardinals that exceeded 100 mph six times and topped out at 101 while completing four innings for the first time in his gradual build-up after his injury. The only hits he allowed did not leave the infield; Miguel Rojas lost Jordan Walker's pop-up in the sun, with Walker later scoring on an Alec Burleson bunt single.
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Ohtani struck out eight, including the last four batters he faced, while throwing a season-high 53 pitches. At the plate, he belted a two-run homer.
'I thought it was a big day for me personally,' Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton.
In all, the reigning National League MVP did his best to buck the notion he was ailing. Ohtani exited his most recent start on the mound with right hip cramps, a startling sight amid his rehab from a second major elbow ligament reconstruction.
So this was a welcome sight all around, save for the result. Ohtani stood in the on-deck circle representing the winning run when Alex Freeland grounded out to finish a 5-3 loss as the Dodgers dropped another series in an uneven start to the second half.
Since RBI became official in 1920, Shohei Ohtani is the only MLB player to:
– hit a home run– strike out 8+ batters– drive in more runs (2) than he allowed (1)– draw more walks (1) than he allowed (0)
The Dodgers still ended up losing. pic.twitter.com/xZgfIkTmRh
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) August 7, 2025
Still, Ohtani got through the outing healthy, inching towards the five-inning threshold that the Dodgers want to get him to before October. He also continued to show life with the bat, even on a day when he pitched. Since June 1, when his pitching rehab really ramped up, he has an .896 OPS. It was 1.062 before that. It's a slight downturn, but with Ohtani, even the slightest dip matters so much.
With his third-inning homer, he swung the Dodgers' one-run deficit into a one-run lead. Matthew Liberatore left a belt-high sinker over the plate and Ohtani punished it, driving it 109.5 mph off his bat to the opposite field to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.
Wednesday was a full manifestation of what Ohtani can do that no one else can. It marked the fourth time in his major-league career (and first since his second surgery) that he hit 100 mph on the mound and hit a home run at least 100 mph in the same game. It's the type of fun fact you know he's done more than anyone else without even having to look it up. Because it's Ohtani.
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'It's crazy,' Miguel Rojas said. 'He was in the game late last night, running the bases, then he comes in today and pitches like he did, hits a homer. It's crazy what he can do.'
Ohtani's homer was his 1,000th hit since arriving in the majors in 2018. He's been a unicorn in the sport ever since. Ohtani remains alone among two-way players, but even Ohtani hasn't done this during a pennant race for a team actively trying to map out how to best utilize him in October. That adds something every time Ohtani takes the mound, which is why the Dodgers are being so cautious. If he gets hurt, it impacts their lineup even more than it does their rotation.
'What we're doing right now is essentially house money,' Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. 'It's additive, being a two-way player. So then, we got to be mindful of Shohei, now and also going forward.'
Ohtani said he is considering adjusting his workout schedule to accommodate his added workload. He is human, even when what he's doing doesn't seem so. This time, he even accepted some water from Will Ireton after finishing the top of the first inning and before leading off the bottom half. Most times, he's declined to take a sip.
Before making his return from an injury he feared would cost him his season, Max Muncy forgot to check a box. He never slid, never tested out his injured knee by pounding it into the dirt to see how it would feel.
He passed that test in the eighth inning of Tuesday night's 12-6 win, going from first to third on a Michael Conforto single and sliding with his left knee down to beat the throw. He did so mere feet away from where he was crumpled in a heap just 34 days earlier when Michael A. Taylor crashed into his leg.
'It's good to know that nothing's going to break when you slide,' Muncy said.
He already knew his swing was in a good place. As soon as he could, Muncy began tracking pitches on the team's Trajekt Arc pitching machine, hoping to keep his timing from the torrid two months that preceded his injury. He still went hitless in the first nine at-bats of his rehab assignment.
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Coaches at Triple-A Oklahoma City deduced that his hands were too far from his body. The correction worked. He homered on the first pitch he saw on Tuesday, his second game off the injured list. That was a good sign. An even better sign came in his next at-bat, when he met a Miles Mikolas fastball at the top of the zone and sent it over the fence for his second home run of the game.
'I was getting to the pitches at the top of the zone. As long as I'm doing that, I feel like my swing is in a really good spot,' Muncy said.
The four-hit night came amid the largest Dodgers offensive eruption since before Muncy's five-week absence. They hadn't scored double-digit runs in a game since June 22 before romping, 12-6. It turns out, the Dodgers' offense looks a lot better with Muncy, Teoscar Hernández (three extra-base hits Tuesday, including a home run) and Mookie Betts (who had his first three-hit night since June 7) all going in it.
It is perhaps most true about Muncy. He is the Dodgers' metronome, even when he scuffles. His propensity to work counts is a tone-setter. His presence makes a talented group appear deeper. It's not an exact science, but the Dodgers have simply done a better job of scoring runs with Muncy in the lineup than they have without him.
In the 89 games he's started, the Dodgers have scored 5.64 runs per game. In the 40 games Muncy hasn't started, the Dodgers have averaged just 3.95 runs per game.
'That presence in the lineup is so additive and just makes everyone around him better,' Roberts said.
Alex Vesia has represented rare stability in the Dodgers' bullpen for much of this season. But his stuff wasn't crisp in the eighth inning on Wednesday when he was tasked with a one-run lead. No pitcher in baseball is better at getting induced vertical break — or 'hop' to his fastball to get swing-and-miss.
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It wasn't there as the Cardinals built an inning off of him with a pair of singles. Brock Stewart had been warming in the bullpen. The trade deadline acquisition was acquired for his ability to silence right-handed hitters like Walker, but he remained in the bullpen as Vesia looked to wriggle his way out of the frame.
When Vesia left a two-out, 1-1 slider to Walker, the batter laced it to left for a game-tying single. Freeland's ensuing throw from third base trickled into the outfield, allowing the go-ahead run to score.
'Just rushed it,' Freeland said.
Roberts had to gamble. This would've been Stewart's third outing in four days, and he likely wouldn't be available for the ninth if used in the eighth. That would've entrusted the ninth to Blake Treinen, who has had a shaky return off the injured list and was the lone reliever left available.
'You've got to kind of try to figure out,' Roberts said. 'If I could guarantee that Brock would have got the guy, got (Masyn) Winn out, or Walker out, and then I could guarantee that Blake doesn't give up a run in the ninth inning. Then it's a no-brainer. But I can't live in that world.'
The ninth inning revealed other land mines. For as much as Stewart has dominated righties, left-handed hitters had opened the day with a .928 OPS against him. The veteran continued that trend in the ninth, when he allowed a leadoff single to the left-handed hitting Brendan Donovan (after hitting the right-handed hitting Iván Herrera) and allowed a run-scoring double off the wall to lefty Lars Nootbaar.
'Just haven't been very sharp,' said Stewart, who has allowed runs in two of his three appearances since the trade.
It's still far from a complete unit right now, even as the Dodgers project optimism for what it could look like in October.
(Photo of Shohei Ohtani: Luke Hales / Getty Images)
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