Last Night In Baseball: Whatever Shohei Ohtani’s Problem Was, It’s Over Now

There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves. Don’t worry, we’re here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball: Earlier in the season, Shohei Ohtani was struggling. Well, for him. The power wasn’t quite there, and while he was still getting on base — even extending his on-base streak that began last year into the top-25 all-time — he didn’t feel like a threat at the plate. The Dodgers ended up giving him some time to rest, keeping him out of the lineup during some starts and even another day for good measure after one of those. Whatever was bothering Ohtani — the Dodgers were not necessarily forthcoming during this stretch, though publicly supportive, but the implication was fatigue or at least the need for some time to reset his approach at the plate — seems to be over now. First off, he’s now batting .301/.420/.521, good for a 165 OPS+ that’s better than all but one season he had at the plate in six years with the Angels — that on-base percentage currently leads the NL. And second, Ohtani went 3-for-4 with a pair of walks and a run on Wednesday in a 7-0 Dodgers win over the Diamondbacks. While Ohtani had “only” one run and no RBIs, he also pitched on this night when he got on base five times… and threw six shutout innings with two hits and one walk allowed against six strikeouts. Yes, Ohtani had more hits than he allowed, and more walks, too. The only reason that Ohtani isn’t leading the National League in both on-base percentage and ERA is because he hasn’t thrown enough innings to qualify — the Dodgers don’t push him to rack up innings, and so his 61 innings fall just short of matching Los Angeles’ 62 games played. A pitcher needs one inning per team game played to qualify. Basically, he’s a seven-inning outing in his next start away from sitting atop the NL with a sub-1.00 ERA and better-than-.400 OBP. Ridiculous. The Astros seemed like they had mostly recovered from their early struggles, but then dropped a series to the Brewers — hey, most teams do that — and then lost the series opener to the Pirates. Wednesday looked like it was going to lead to another series loss, as the Astros got out to a quick 2-0 lead but then surrendered a grand slam in the fourth to catcher Henry Davis. If that had been it, that would be one thing, but the Pirates kept tacking on more. Pittsburgh responded to Houston’s one-run response by scoring once in the sixth — on a single by shortstop Jared Triolo — then two in the seventh on a homer by third baseman Nick Gonzales. Outfielder Jhostynxon Garcia would make it 8-3 with a double in the same inning, and while Houston got a couple back in the seventh courtesy a dinger by third baseman Isaac Paredes, Gonzalez laced a double in the top of the eighth to stretch the lead to 9-5. It turns out that Pittsburgh should have scored more runs. Mason Montgomery came on in relief of Yohan Ramírez in the bottom of the inning, and while he got the first two outs no problem — both strikeouts — he would be knocked out before he could get the third one. Second baseman Nick Allen hit a double, then backstop Christian Vázquez drove him in with another two-bagger. Shortstop Jeremy Peña drew a walk, forcing the Bucs to bring Gregory Soto to replace Montgomery. It didn’t do the trick: DH Yordan Alvarez singled in Vázquez, then first baseman Christian Walker singled in Peña. Paredes would walk on a wild pitch, which scored pinch-runner Zach Cole and tied the game 9-9. Then, right fielder Cam Smith happened. A two-out, bases-clearing triple on a 98.1 mph four-seamer that caught way too much of the middle of the plate gave the Astros a six-run eighth inning, and an 11-9 lead. That would also be the final score, and guarantees that, at the least, Houston has a chance to win this series on Thursday. Some of that comedy was intentional. See: rookie starter Payton Tolle pretending he has a chance at pulling this ball out of the air. Some of the laughs? Not so much on purpose. The Red Sox got the last laugh here, though, as they defeated the Orioles 8-1. Hey, Boston has 10 wins at home now! Just 10 more in a row and they’ll have a .500 record at Fenway this season. Phillies’ ace Cristopher Sánchez has been on a serious roll lately, as he went through the entire month of May without allowing a single run, spread out over five starts, all at least seven innings in length. On Wednesday against the Padres, Sánchez had the chance to make it into at least the five-longest scoreless streaks in recorded MLB history. And he did: by getting to 50 ⅔ innings without allowing a run, Sánchez recorded the fifth-longest streak since 1893, and the third-longest since the live ball era — which made keeping the opposition scoreless that much tougher — began in 1920. He did it in his typical dominant fashion, too, striking out eight Padres while allowing just four hits and a walk. Sánchez became just the second pitcher to strike out 100 batters in 2026, too: he’s now at 103, five behind Brewers’ phenom Jacob Misiorowski… who allowed just one more run in the month of May than Sánchez. So, you know. One. Regrettably, that’s as much history as could be gotten from Sánchez in this streak: the Padres ended it in the top of the seventh, when center fielder Jackson Merrill hit a ball through the infield to left and scored first baseman Ty France from second. Sánchez would finish the inning, and the game ended with him possessing an MLB-leading 1.46 ERA — he has thrown a league-most 86 ⅓ innings, in no small part thanks to this dominant run of lengthy outings with lower pitch counts due to just how good he’s been, so he easily clears the qualifiers that Ohtani is just short of. And while his scoreless streak is over, it’s an all-timer. The Phillies would end up winning, 3-2 — the other run scored off of reliever Brad Keller — which didn’t get them any closer to the surging Atlanta Braves, but does have them just half-a-game back of a wild-card spot a few weeks after hanging around the NL East basement. The Mariners had won a season-best eight games in a row, the last two of those at the expense of the Mets, but that streak is now over, too. Seattle scored tied things up 1-1 in the bottom of the first on a home run by shortstop and leadoff hitter J.P. Crawford… …but that ended up being it for the M’s bats for the day. George Kirby was not at his best on the mound, lasting just four innings while allowing nine hits and a walk, leading to five runs. Shortstop Bo Bichette hit a two-run single in the top of the fourth, and that ended up being the game-winning hit. But not the end of the Mets’ scoring. New York made it 4-1 in the same inning on a steal of home by right fielder Carson Benge, then first baseman Jared Young doubled home DH Juan Soto. Left fielder MJ Melendez doubled in another run in the fifth, then Bichette struck again, this time with a sac fly, to score the seventh and final run for New  York. Lucky for the Mariners, the Rangers lost, but the Athletics picked up a W to get a game in the standings back — despite being 30-31, they are also just two games behind the Mariners thanks to Seattle’s performance before this winning streak. Speaking of the Athletics, they had a chance to make it two in a row and secure at minimum a series win against the Cubs. While they struck first, going up 2-0 on Chicago after two innings, the Cubs ended up with a 3-2 lead following homers by right fielder Seiya Suzuki and center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong. Chicago would make it 4-2 with a Michael Busch triple in the fourth, but that was the end of the Cubs’ scoring. The A’s chipped away from there: Colby Thomas came in as a pinch-hitter in the top of the eighth, and hit a monster dong to cut the lead in half. Thomas blasted that one 426 feet to left-center field and over everything, with an exit velocity of 108.7 mph. An absolute no doubter off the bat. Left fielder Tyler Soderstrom would then single in a run to tie things at four, which led to extra innings. And there, first baseman Nick Kurtz punished reliever Ethan Roberts for giving him something he could reach. The A’s would hang on for the 5-4 win; Chicago is now 32-30, and while the 10-game losing streak understandably got a bunch of attention, maybe more worrisome is that the Cubs are 5-18 since May 9. Chicago has two 10-game winning streaks this season, and have been an extremely mixed bag otherwise. What a strange year so far. “Tigers sweep the Rays” is not how anyone in Detroit or Tampa Bay expected this series to go, considering the Rays are in first in the AL East and the Tigers have been a mess in the cellar of an uninspiring division, but that’s baseball. Detroit picked up a 7-2 win to close out the sweep on Wednesday, with catcher Dillon Dingler once again leading the way. He homered — again — and went 2-for-4 with a run and four RBIs. Beyond Dingler’s efforts, second baseman Gleyber Torres had a three-hit night while starting pitcher Troy Melton shut the Rays down. The 25-year-old, in his third start of the year and seventh of his big-league career, went eight innings while allowing four hits, two walks and two runs, while striking out five. Despite the Rays getting swept by the Tigers, though, the AL East picture hasn’t changed all that much. And that’s because… There’s still one game remaining in the four-game series, but as of now the Guardians lead things 2-1 thanks to winning again on Wednesday. There was no terrible start by a Yankees’ pitcher this time, but once again the lineup could not make up for the starter — in this case, Gerrit Cole — not dominating. He allowed four runs in 5 ⅓ innings, and the bullpen allowed just one more, but it was one too many for the Yankees’ lineup. In the top of the fourth, designated hitter Rhys Hoskins hit a two-run homer, giving Cleveland a 3-1 lead that would stick this time. José Ramírez, who scored on the Hoskins dinger, added a long ball of his own in the sixth to make it 4-2. And while the Yankees would claw it back in the bottom of the inning on a sac fly by left fielder Cody Bellinger, Hoskins struck again with an RBI single in the eighth to give Ramírez his third run of the game, and all the runs the Guardians would need for the W. José Ramírez is fun to watch, for more reasons than just his bat. Or his legs. Or his glove. Man this guy rules.