How Shohei Ohtani has leveled his pitching with Dodgers: Feel for the game

Shohei Ohtani seemed to be starting Geraldo Perdomo out easy last week.In reality, the Dodgers’ two-way star was simply laying another trap.Coming off three perfect innings to begin his most recent pitching outing on Wednesday night against the Diamondbacks, Ohtani opened the bottom of the fourth against Perdomo by firing a get-me-over, softer-than-usual fastball at 95.4 mph, catching Perdomo taking for a called first strike on the outside corner.Just like that, advantage Ohtani. He would quickly press it for an unforgiving strikeout.On the 0-1 offering, Ohtani turned to one of his signature pitches, snapping off a splitter that seemingly started at Perdomo’s ribs, only to twist back over the plate as the Dbacks infielder leaned away from the plate.With the 0-2 pitch, Ohtani then turned up the dial, reaching back for 99.4 mph heat –– four full ticks faster than his first-pitch four-seamer –– that was perfectly placed at the top of the strike zone; drawing not only a called third strike, but a failed ABS challenge from Arizona’s befuddled batter.“He’s from a different planet,” Perdomo had told reporters before the game. And then, once again, Ohtani elevated his game to a different universe.Entering his next scheduled trip to the mound in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, the right-hander is in the midst of an early-season pitching performance that, even for his four-time MVP standards, few had seen coming.Ohtani’s ERA is 0.74 through his first 10 starts this year, the third-lowest 10-start mark in MLB history since earned runs became a stat in 1913. Equally remarkable is that, before this season, Ohtani had never personally experienced such a similarly dominant stretch as a pitcher, coming closest in 2022 (a 1.48 ERA over his final 10 outings that year) before undergoing his second career Tommy John surgery a year later.“May just ended.So once the first half [of the season] is over, I think it will be good if I can make adjustments after looking at...