Shohei Ohtani hits leadoff homer, gives Dodgers' no-hit bid - ESPN

LOS ANGELES — In back-to-back pitching starts, Shohei Ohtani has hit a leadoff home run, limited damage, claimed a victory and come away angry.

The latest, in Wednesday's series finale against the Colorado Rockies, saw Ohtani clobber a 424-foot home run to straightaway center field in the bottom of the first, then give up just one run in six no-hit innings to lower his ERA to 0.82. And yet, in the wake of it, he lamented the four walks, the one hit by pitch and the overall inefficiency that abbreviated an otherwise dominant performance.

«Of course you want to avoid the hits, but the result of that was a lot of walks today,» Ohtani, speaking through an interpreter, said after the Dodgers' 4-1 victory, their fifth in a row. «That's something that I just don't really want to do.»

The Dodgers were just four outs away from a combined no-hitter when Rockies outfielder Tyler Freeman hit a line-drive, opposite-field single off Tanner Scott in the eighth inning. It went for the Rockies' only hit of the night. Their only run came after a walk and a hit by pitch were followed by two fielder's choice groundouts in the fourth inning. It was the only damage off Ohtani, even though he threw a season-low 56.6% of his pitches for strikes.

His second-lowest strike rate occurred seven days earlier, when Ohtani threw five scoreless innings against the San Diego Padres and later bemoaned his lack of feel. Asked whether he had ever managed someone with such unreasonable expectations, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts provided a quick answer.

«A guy that wore No. 22 that we remember,» Roberts said, referencing Clayton Kershaw. «Very similar.»

Ohtani, though, is doing things not even Kershaw could.

On offense, Ohtani has put an elongated hitting