Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing tapped Shohei Ohtani from behind with his glove, as he passed the two-way superstar putting on his hitting guards at the entrance to the dugout.
By the time of that brief exchange in the fourth inning, the battery was already looking, if not completely dominant, at least more in sync Friday, setting up their team for a 4-3 win against the Padres.
As Ohtani held the Padres to three runs through six innings, the battery pairing had a much smoother ride than the previous week.
Ohtani took his at-bat in the sixth but was replaced by pinch-hitter Miguel Rojas in the seventh after feeling something in his right biceps during his final at-bat. He told reporters the move was “precautionary” and that he felt something in the same spot a couple months ago that cleared up relatively quickly.
The last time Rushing caught Ohtani, the pitcher took over pitch,calling after a disastrous second inning against the Twins last week.
“I just overthought last time,” Rushing said in a conversation with The Times on Thursday night. “I was trying to be perfect, and with a guy like that, you don’t have to be perfect. You just need to call the right pitches at the right time and allow his stuff to just beat them naturally. And that’s the plan [Friday]. Whether I call the pitch, he calls the pitch. I want to make sure we’re both convicted in what we’re throwing, and we can execute it to the best of our ability.”
On Friday, Ohtani handed back over pitch-calling duties, communicating with head shakes and nods instead of the PitchCom buttons on his arm.
Ohtani walked the first two batters he faced. But then he struck out three of the next four, escaping the jam down just 1-0, courtesy of an RBI single from Gavin Sheets.
That started a streak of 10 batters who Ohtani retired in order, fanning six of them.
“The best way that I can describe it is, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Rushing said when asked what he’d learned from following along last week. “That’s the way he pitches. … Trust what you do, trust how good his stuff is, and just go from there.”
Ohtani’s back-to-back strikeouts to end the second inning were a good example. Against left-handed hitting Sung-Mun Song, he threw mostly four-seam fastballs and splitters, finishing off the six-pitch at-bat with a sweeper, according to Statcast.
Against right-handed hitting Rodolfo Durán, Ohtani threw mostly sinkers and sweepers, with one four-seamer mixed in out of seven pitches.
Ohtani eventually relented a second run with two outs in the fourth inning. He fell behind 0-2 in the count to Jackson Merrill, who flipped a strike call with an ABS challenge. Then Merrill hammered a fastball over the plate for a solo homer.
Ohtani successfully navigated traffic to throw a scoreless fifth, but Xander Bogaerts tagged him for an RBI double in the sixth.
Ohtani gave up seven hits for a quality start that wasn’t his cleanest but was enough for the Dodgers to win after Teoscar Hernández hit a grand slam in the seventh.
The Dodgers struggled to get anything going against Padres starter Michael King. But he turned the game over to reliever Adrian Morejon with two runners on and no outs in the seventh. Two batters later, Hernández ambushed a first-pitch slider.
Hernández drifted up the first-base line as he watched the ball fly. When it landed, he launched his bat back toward the dugout, and it made it halfway there.
The home run helped dissolve any lingering worries about Rushing and Ohtani’s pairing.
Rushing has been the Dodgers’ primary catcher since June 6, when a neck injury sidelined Will Smith. The Dodgers initially expected the issue to resolve with a day or two of rest. But after stalled progress and an injection to address it, Smith is not expected to return from the IL until after the All-Star break.
He’s at least progressing through baseball activities. Smith has resumed throwing and took swings on Thursday, manager Dave Roberts said.
The Dodgers pushed back Ohtani’s start this week from Wednesday against the A’s to Friday against a division rival. The change in schedule likely means he won’t pitch in the All-Star Game.
“If you just kind of do the math it would be hard to imagine,” said Roberts, who will also manage the NL All-Star team. “But I don’t have to make that decision quite yet.”
Ohtani is lined up to pitch again next Friday against the Diamondbacks, four days before the All-Star Game. The break from pitching could also benefit his left knee, an issue that seems to have been aggravated by pitching.
“The knee feels as good as it’s felt in quite some time,” Roberts said before the game Friday, “so that’s encouraging for tonight.”