Shohei Ohtani's first pitching start of the 2026 season was effortless and smooth.

On Shohei Ohtani's starting days, the most thrilling scenes are sometimes not when he's on the pitcher's mound or in the batter's box, but during the moments he switches between the two roles.

Whenever Ohtani completes an inning of pitching, he has just two minutes to exchange his cap for a helmet and his glove for a bat. After changing equipment, he also needs to transition his mindset from pitching tactics to batting thinking. His ability to seamlessly alternate between pitching and hitting astonishes teammates and coaches, who understand how difficult such a switch truly is.

Shohei Ohtani's first two-way performance of the new season took place today at Dodger Stadium. He started against the Cleveland Guardians, pitching six scoreless innings with six strikeouts, three walks, and allowing only one hit.

In terms of hitting, Ohtani had no hits through the first six innings, but drew two walks, extending his streak of consecutive games reaching base to 36. According to Elias Sports Bureau statistics, since the expansion era began in 1961, Ohtani holds the longest streak of consecutive games reaching base while also serving as the starting pitcher. The second place is Rick Rhoden in 1985, with a streak of 14 games.

Ohtani's command throughout the game wasn't flawless, as evidenced by the three walks, but he consistently kept Guardians batters from finding their rhythm on the mound. He retired 11 of the first 13 batters; in the third inning, he walked Gabriel Arias and Steven Kwan, then allowed a soft line-drive double to Rhys Hoskins, which was the only hit he surrendered all game.

In the fifth inning, light rain began, and Ohtani's control wavered again as he hit Angel Martínez with a pitch. During the inning break, he specifically walked over to apologize to him. After two outs in the sixth inning, he walked Kyle Manzardo, then groundskeepers came to spread dry dirt on the mound while Ohtani cleaned mud off his shoes. Once the field was prepared, Ohtani struck out Hoskins with a slider-cutter, perfectly concluding his pitching debut.