Shohei Ohtani struck out 8 and pitched 7 scoreless innings as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Francisco Giants 4-0 on May 14 at home, ending a four-game skid. The win came two days after the Dodgers had lost 9-3 to the Giants and fallen to their fourth straight defeat. [1, 2, 1]
Ohtani also delivered at the plate on May 12, when he hit his seventh home run of the season, his first in May, in the third inning. Multiple reports said it snapped a long homer drought, though they differed on the date of his previous home run and on his full batting line in that game. [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
The Dodgers lost that May 12 game despite Ohtani's homer. Yoshinobu Yamamoto started and allowed 5 runs in 6.1 innings, with 3 home runs against him, and took his third loss of the season. [2, 3]
Reports described Ohtani's batting form as sluggish in that defeat. Several accounts said he went hitless and struck out multiple times, while one report said he finished 4-for-4 with 2 hits, including the homer, and a walk. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Ohtani was pressing at the plate and trying to swing his way out of the slump, and he said the club was considering giving him a rest day from hitting around his next pitching turn. [10, 4, 11, 5, 6, 7, 12, 8, 9]
Before the May 12 game, Ohtani took outdoor batting practice and was reported to have hit 17 home runs in 52 swings. The Dodgers' next scheduled marker in the run came on May 14, when Ohtani's pitching shutout restored the club to the win column. [5, 7, 8, 9, 1]
