Shohei Ohtani is scheduled to pitch against the Rockies Wednesday, but don’t expect a gem

Wednesday night at Coors Field has the potential to be a special showcase for Rockies fans, as it will be their one chance this season to see one of baseball’s greatest players on full display, Shohei Ohtani. The two-way phenom has played plenty of games in the Mile High City in his career, but he has never taken the mound in a regular season game (He started the 2021 All-Star Game in Denver for the AL and received the win).

Ohtani is scheduled to be on the bump for the Dodgers on Wednesday night, while the Rockies will send Tanner Gordon (who pitched a solid game against the Diamondbacks last week after a rough start to the month) out when they take the field. However, fans shouldn’t be expecting to see a gem from the Japanese star.

He just got back on the mound in mid-June after undergoing a second Tommy John surgery in 2023. He missed the end of the 2023 season, but played through the entire 2024 season and the start of the 2025 season as just a hitter. Wednesday will be his 10th appearance on the mound for the Dodgers this year, but none of his outings have looked like the ones he put up in 2022 when he finished fourth in the AL Cy Young voting.

He has slowly upped his pitch count, as his 4.1 inning outing a week ago against the Angels was his longest of the season. His 3.47 ERA is the highest of his career (even though it’s still a very good mark), and his 8.1 hits per nine innings is also the highest mark he’s put up in the big leagues.

Don’t get it twisted, he’s still one of the better pitchers in the National League. Rockies fans just shouldn’t get their hopes up too high for Wednesday, as Ohtani is still working his way back to being the pitcher he once was after the operation. He likely won’t go more than five innings, and a lot of his performances this season have been more routine outings without the high strikeout totals.

An interesting change in Ohtani’s pitching since returning from injury is that his average velocity on all his pitches are up. On average, the average speed on his pitches is up 2.01 MPH from the last time he took the mound in 2023. That includes all seven of his pitches, from the fast four-seamer to the slow curveball.

There’s a very good chance that Ohtani puts up 4-5 solid innings and puts the Dodgers in a good spot to win Wednesday’s contest. More than likely, it’s not going to be some all-time gem that has all of Coors Field in awe. Gem or not, it’s going to be the first time that Rockies fans get to see the phenom pitch in their park, and should be a good experience whether he lets up zero runs or lets up nine.

First pitch for the third outing of a four-game series is set for 6:40 p.m. from Coors Field.

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