Shohei Ohtani took over pitch-calling after an early miscommunication with Dalton Rushing, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Minnesota Twins 4-3 on Wednesday in Minneapolis. The shift came after a run-scoring crossup in the second inning, but Ohtani did not allow another run through the sixth.
Rushing returns on Wednesday
Rushing was back in the lineup Wednesday after being removed from Monday's game to rule out a concussion. He took the blame afterward, saying, “It was an error on my side. I messed it up. It was my fault.”
He added, “I didn’t do a great job from start to finish,” then called the sequence “Pretty embarrassing. Thankfully he’s as good as he is and he can take control of the game.” That left the Dodgers to absorb an early run while Ohtani and Rushing tried to get on the same page.
Ohtani changes the approach
The second inning exposed the problem. Ohtani had already given up singles to three of the first four batters he faced, and Ryan Kreidler came up with the bases loaded when two consecutive pitch calls put him and Rushing on different pages for the first pitch of the at-bat. Mark Prior walked to the mound and huddled with them before Ohtani took over the pitch-calling duties himself.
Ohtani said, “There’s really a couple ways of communicating,” and added, “One is by words, but the other way to be able to communicate is by example, and just taking the charge and showing Rush what kind of pitching style I’m capable of.” He explained the misread this way: “Rush thought that he was getting an off-speed because I started moving after the first pitch was called. But what I had in mind was the second pitch … which was a fastball.”
Betts and Ohtani drive the rally
Mookie Betts had already given the Dodgers a lift before the pitching adjustment, hitting a solo homer off Joe Ryan in the top of the second for the 300th home run of his career. He finished with three hits and was a triple shy of the cycle, giving the Dodgers enough offense to survive the run they gave away.
Ohtani then supplied an RBI single after the second inning to help spark the winning rally. He finished by holding the line through the sixth, and the Dodgers left Minneapolis with a 4-3 win built on a repair job in the middle of the game rather than a clean start to it.
The 4-3 result fit the Dodgers' 52-29 record, but the sharper takeaway was how quickly Ohtani moved from a communication problem to full control of the game. The question left behind is whether that pitch-calling arrangement becomes a one-game fix or part of the way the Dodgers handle him going forward.
