Ohtani's Early-Season Dominance

Shohei Ohtani has opened the 2026 season with one earned run allowed in 24 innings for the Los Angeles Dodgers. (espn.com) Through four starts, Ohtani is 2-0 with a 0.38 earned run average, 25 strikeouts, six walks and a 0.75 WHIP, which measures baserunners allowed per inning. His game log shows six innings in each outing, with the only earned run coming against the New York Mets on April 15. (espn.com) His latest start came Wednesday, April 22, when he threw six scoreless innings with seven strikeouts against the San Francisco Giants before the Dodgers lost 3-0. He also opened the year with six scoreless innings against Cleveland on March 31 and followed that with six innings of one unearned run at Toronto on April 8. (latimes.com) (espn.com 1) (espn.com 2) The start matters because Ohtani is back in a full two-way role after two interrupted pitching seasons. He did not pitch at all in 2024 while recovering from a 2023 right elbow procedure, then returned in 2025 for 14 starts and 47 innings with a 2.87 earned run average. (mlb.com) (cbsnews.com) Major League Baseball’s own review of his comeback noted that his average four-seam fastball reached 98.4 miles per hour in 2025, a career high after his second major elbow surgery. That gave the Dodgers evidence that his return on the mound was not just symbolic, but sustainable enough to stretch back into regular starts this spring. (mlb.com) FanGraphs lists Ohtani’s 2026 pitch mix with a four-seam fastball, slider, curveball, splitter and sinker, and pegs his strikeout rate at 26.1% through his first three starts. The same page shows a 2.31 fielding independent pitching mark, an estimate based on strikeouts, walks and home runs, with zero home runs allowed so far. (fangraphs.com) He is also still hitting in the middle of the Dodgers’ lineup, which keeps the comparison with every other starting pitcher tilted in his favor. Early coverage around the club has treated the one-earned-run line as a shorthand for the same question that has followed him for years: how much value one roster spot can hold when it belongs to Ohtani. (mlb.com) (espn.com) For now, the cleanest number is still the first one: one earned run in 24 innings, through April 22, 2026. Four starts into the season, hitters still have not taken him deep. (espn.com) (fangraphs.com)