Dodgers 4, Guardians 1: Shohei Ohtani starts his year on the mound with 6 shutout frames

Chad Moriyama 03/31/2026 Game Recaps Leave A Comment

Coming off their first loss of the season, the Dodgers continued their slow offensive start but scratched across just enough to support a dominant start from Shohei Ohtani and the pen continuing to lock things down in a 4-1 victory.

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Let’s start things off with Shohei Ohtani because he definitely starred today in his season debut on the mound. Things began ideally for him with six up and six down through his first two frames. While he then issued a pair of walks as the Guardians got more selective in the 3rd, there wasn’t any damage from them there either.

The 4th saw Ohtani give up his first hit, a two-out double that he then stranded to keep his shutout going. He then hit a batter in the 5th and walked a batter in the 6th, but there was barely any threat against him for the whole start.

Ohtani mostly cruised through six shutout to start his season and give the offense time to get going: 6 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K, 87 Pitches

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The offense … well, they needed that time to get going. Guardians starter Tanner Bibee got through three scoreless to start, giving up just a single in the 1st and a walk in each of the 2nd and 3rd (all came with one out).

They finally broke through in the 4th, as a one-out single from Will Smith led to a two-out single from Teoscar Hernandez, and then Andy Pages had a great at-bat that he ended with a nice piece of hitting for an RBI single and 1-0 Dodgers lead.

That was Bibee’s last inning, and after the pen stranded a lead-off walk in the 5th, the 6th saw Max Muncy added to the lead with a no-doubter to right that made it 2-0.

After getting just a single in the 7th, the Dodgers added insurance in the 8th behind singles from Freddie Freeman, Muncy, Teoscar Hernandez, and Pages for two runs to push the lead to 4-0.

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For the Dodgers pen, it was Alex Vesia starting it off in the 7th. He cruised through a 1-2-3 frame but the drama was in him narrowly avoiding a broken bat.

Jack Dreyer took over in the 8th, issuing just a walk in the inning thanks to Mookie Betts picking up an infield hit deflecting off a foot and then making the good play going into the hole for an out to start things.

The 9th belonged to Edwin Diaz, of course, save situation or not. He started by slipping on a wet mound and hitting a batter, uncorking a wild pitch, and then issuing a walk. After a flyout cornered the runners, a single gave the Guardians their first run, but back-to-back strikeouts slammed the door. The win for them was getting Diaz over 30 pitches, likely keeping him out tomorrow.

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Will Smith is solving his framing deficiencies with ABS challenge proficiency.

The broadcast highlighted Alex Freeland‘s subtle setup change.

Alex Freeland's end of Spring Training adjustment to free up his hands.

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— Chad Moriyama (@chadmoriyama.bsky.social) March 31, 2026 at 4:57 PM

Miguel Rojas was having fun.

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4-1, everything is fine again.

The series concludes tomorrow at 2:20 PM HT/5:20 PM PT/8:20 PM ET with Yoshinobu Yamamoto back on the hill against Gavin Williams.

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