Last Night in Baseball: Shohei Ohtani Had a Two-Way Game to Remember

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 the weekend in Major League Baseball:

Only Ohtani. Literally.

Shohei Ohtani will be slowly stretched out for the rest of the season, so that he’s able to go five or six innings in the postseason as just a normal thing. The Dodgers want to be sure that he’s good to go, and so they haven’t been rushing him at all this year: it took until mid-June for him to appear in a game as a pitcher despite undergoing Tommy John surgery in September of 2023. 

Wednesday’s start was a bit of a milestone for him, then, in that he went four innings — the first time he’s gone that deep in a game this year — and did so on a season-high 54 pitches. 

If that sounds economical, well, it was: Ohtani threw 65% of his pitches for strikes, struck out 8 batters against no walks, and allowed one run on two hits. He was as dominant as a pitcher can be over four innings.

Oh, and he reached 100 mph on the radar gun in the first. Ohtani came out firing, and looked like the kind of starter that Los Angeles’ beleaguered rotation has been in need of all year.

Since this is Ohtani, though, his offensive performance somehow distracted from his success on the mound. While he was just 1-for-4 with a walk against Cardinals’ pitching, Ohtani made his one hit count: he crushed a two-run home run, his 39th of the year… and the 1,000th hit of his MLB career.

Ohtani is just the third Japanese-born MLB player to reach the 1,000-hit threshold, joining recently inducted Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki (3,089) as well as Hideki Matsui (1,253). Ohtani might pass Matsui for second on that list by the end of 2026, given the way he’s been hitting since coming to Los Angeles. After winning the 2024 MVP solely on the power of his bat, Ohtani is now batting .276/.381/.606 in ‘25, with his 39 homers putting him second in the NL behind Kyle Schwarber.

Yes, the Dodgers lost, but they’re still in first in the NL West, and if you asked them, a performance like this from Ohtani is much more meaningful than a single win, given what it could mean for their chances in October.

Yankees avoid sweep, extend WC lead

The Yankees narrowly avoided a series sweep at the hands of the Rangers by defeating them 3-2 on Wednesday. And while every win matters at this point in the season, the fact that Texas is chasing New York in the wild card standings — and had narrowed the Bronx Bombers’ lead to a mere half-a-game with wins in the first two contests of this series — made securing a W even more important on Wednesday. 

Paul Goldschmidt was there to give the Yankees what they needed as a pinch-hitter: he hit a home run in the top of the seventh, putting New York on top, 3-2. That kind of lead that late in the game has been a disaster for the Yankees of late, but on Wednesday, the bullpen nailed it down. 

Newly-acquired reliever David Bednar was the one who came through. He threw 42 pitches over two innings, the most he’s tossed in a single game since 2022, to earn a five-out save. 

Why not another Ichiro mention?

You can thank Bobby Witt Jr. for causing Ichiro to be brought up not once but twice. On Wednesday in the top of the third inning against the Red Sox, the Royals’ shortstop stole his 30th base of the season. That put him right there with Ichiro as the only players to swipe at least 30 bases in each of their first four seasons since 1994. Steals really fell off for a while in MLB, for a number of reasons, but they’re back. And just in time for Bobby Witt Jr. to do his thing.

Witt has 16 homers through 114 games — his triples and home runs are both down, but his doubles are up in 2025 — so he’s unlikely to have his third 30 homer, 30 steals season in a row. Still, he’s having a fine year, even if it’s not quite to 2024’s near-MVP levels.

Brewers notch W No. 70

The Brewers have won six straight and nine out of their last 10 games, with Wednesday’s dub giving them 70 for the year. They’re the first team to reach that threshold, and with room to spare: the Blue Jays are second in the majors in wins, and they just picked up their 68th.

The Braves struck first against the Brewers in their finale, but it didn’t take long for Milwaukee to tie things up then go ahead. Andrew Vaughn continued his run of dominance with another long ball, his 12th of the season and seventh with the Brewers in just 22 games.

Blake Perkins would then hit a two-run shot against Braves’ starter Spencer Strider in the top of the fifth, and good thing, too: Atlanta would put three more runs on the board before the game was over, with Milwaukee able to just hang on for the win.

The Blue Jays could not stop scoring on the Rockies, again

The Blue Jays became the fifth team to score at least 20 runs in a single game during the 2025 MLB season, as they completed their sweep of the Rockies with a 20-1 win. Toronto totaled 45 runs in a three-game span – while allowing just 6 – and set the record for the most hits, 63, in a three-game series in the modern MLB era. 

Colorado scored in the first inning, and then not again. They watched the Jays score 19 unanswered runs, including eight in the ninth alone. Just absolutely zero chill from Toronto in this series, and now the Rockies have been outscored on the season by 316 runs. Or, by 10 more runs than every other NL team with a negative run differential combined. 

Hold on, hold on, we’ve got one more: no MLB team has scored 600 runs yet, but the Rockies have allowed 740. You know, they might not snap their postseason drought this year, you guys.

Immaculate inning!

Nine pitches, nine strikes. Cubs’ reliever Andrew Kittredge blessed us with an immaculate inning. 

A real weird balk

How do you steal second base by running back to first? Very carefully. Chandler Simpson is a serious threat to steal — he has 32 in just 67 games — so, understandably, Angels’ pitcher Tyler Anderson was preoccupied with him at first base. The Rays’ speedster forced a throw over three times, which is one too many by the current rules about pickoff attempts: if a player ends up safe on the third throw over, it’s a balk.

Simpson actually got caught between first and second, but he forced a rundown, and then somehow twisted his body out of the way of the tag before running back to first base, where he’d slide in safe. Well, eventually, once he leapt again to get his hand on the bag. By going back to first and ending up safe, Simpson was given second base by way of the balk. Maybe just let him steal next time, it’s less chaotic.

A near no-no

Gavin Williams had a no-hitter going for the Guardians through 8.1 innings, but then Juan Soto happened. The Mets’ star didn’t do enough to turn the tide for New York, but his solo shot did end Williams’ attempt at a no-no.

Cleveland truly let him go for it, though: Williams threw the most pitches in a start for the year, at 126, and is just the fifth pitcher of this decade to throw at least that many in a start. Pitch counts aren’t what they used to be. Which is good, on balance, especially with how hard these guys throw these days.

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