Shohei Ohtani opened his start with a strikeout. Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Imagn ImagesMay 27, 2026 Updated 11:00 pm EDTLOS ANGELES — For all the debate over whether he should hit on his pitching start days, Shohei Ohtani is making it hard to argue otherwise.For the second consecutive start, Ohtani homered to lead off the game. He tagged Colorado Rockies right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano’s third pitch of the game, blasting it 424 feet to center field for his ninth big fly of the season.
Back-to-back games with a leadoff homer from Shohei, the pitcher! pic.twitter.com/LrJGaz18FJ
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) May 28, 2026The blast followed Ohtani’s leadoff homer on the first pitch of the game he started last week against the San Diego Padres. Ohtani posted five scoreless innings in the Dodgers’ 4-0 win, striking out four and dropping his ERA to 0.73.Ohtani has historically hit Sugano well. He’s 7-for-8 lifetime against him with three homers, five extra-base hits and a walk dating back to their time in Japan. They were part of the same Nippon Professional Baseball draft class in 2012 as first-round picks.His leadoff dinger Wednesday served as just the third leadoff homer by a pitcher in MLB history. Ohtani is the only name on that list.Last October, Ohtani became the first pitcher to leadoff a game with a home run during his historic three-homer performance in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series, where he also posted six scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts. As the Dodgers clinched the pennant for the second straight season, Ohtani was named NLCS MVP.
