The Dodgers open a four-game series against the Rockies at Coors Field on Friday night, weather permitting, with Shohei Ohtani expected to be the designated hitter and not on the mound in Denver. The reason is simple: he started on Wednesday night in New York against the Mets, where he allowed one run and struck out 10 over six innings in an 8-2 victory.
That outing stretched Ohtani’s season to a 0.50 ERA in three starts and reinforced why every stop on the Dodgers’ schedule seems to turn into a stage for him. He has already piled up 22 swings and misses this season, and at Coors Field his numbers are even louder: a.387/.452/.773 line with seven home runs in 20 career games.
Friday also brings a matchup with Tomoyuki Sugano, who is scheduled to start for Baltimore against the Dodgers and has only one game in the majors as a starter against Ohtani, but it was a memorable one. On Sept. 7, Ohtani hit two home runs off Sugano in a 5-2 victory over the Orioles at Camden Yards, part of a run that has made the right-handed slugger one of the league’s hardest outs and most watched stars at 31 years old.
The backstory in Denver cuts both ways. Ohtani crushed a 476-foot homer off Austin Gomber at Coors Field on June 18, 2024, yet the Rockies also beat him for five runs in four innings at the same ballpark last August, when he gave up a career-high-tying nine hits. Kyle Freeland, who has had his own success against Ohtani, is 7 for 11 with two home runs against him and said, “Every single night, on everybody’s lineup, he’s always circled on the card.”
That is the tension entering the series. Ohtani has won four MVP awards in the past five years, all unanimously, and he keeps dragging the matchup into must-watch territory whether he is pitching or DHing. Rockies catcher Dalton Rushing put it bluntly: “He wants a Cy Young,” adding that “you can tell with the way he’s carrying himself here recently.”
For the Dodgers, the next few nights are about keeping the offense rolling while Ohtani works only with the bat in a park where he has both tormented pitchers and been humbled by them. For the Rockies, Friday is another chance to test a hitter who has already made Coors Field one of his loudest stages.