A 5-run lead slips away as Shohei Ohtani rues a missed ABS challenge in a 9-8 loss

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Shohei Ohtani doesn’t like to get in the way of his catchers.

The way the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar looks at it, when he’s on the mound, his job is to throw the ball. It’s up to the guys behind the plate to decide whether to challenge an umpire’s call of a ball or a strike.

That deference might have cost Ohtani and the Dodgers in a stunning 9-8 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night.

Los Angeles was cruising when Ohtani went out for the seventh inning for just the third time this season. The Dodgers led by five thanks to Ryan Ward’s first career grand slam, and Ohtani seemed poised to win his fifth straight start.

Then things unraveled, a rarity for the two-time defending world champions and the greatest player in the game.

Pirates rookie Tyler Callihan singled. Jake Mangum reached on a swinging bunt. Still, Ohtani and the blister on his right hand that is temporarily limiting the number of split-fingered fastballs he throws felt like he was in pretty good shape when Pittsburgh second baseman Brandon Lowe stepped to the plate.

Ohtani quickly fell behind 3-0, with the first and third pitches borderline calls on 98 mph fastballs that home plate umpire Felix Neon ruled balls. Catcher Dalton Rushing didn’t challenge, and with just one challenge remaining, Ohtani decided it probably wasn’t worth the risk.

Lowe quickly made Ohtani pay, turning on a fastball down the middle for a two-run double that ended Ohtani’s night (on the mound anyway) and set the stage for a five-run rally against the Dodger bullpen in the eighth that gave the Pirates perhaps their most unlikely win of the season.

Ohtani, who allowed season highs in hits (six), runs (four) and earned runs (three), couldn’t help but think afterward that he should have tapped the top of his cap earlier in the at-bat so the ABS system could take a look.

“I usually let the catchers make that determination,” he said. “But looking back, I think situationally, how important it was that at-bat, looking back I think I could have done a few challenges.”

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called challenging pitches an “inexact science” and, like Ohtani, is fine leaving it in the hands of the players with the best view in the stadium. And, if the umpire’s call was confirmed, it meant Los Angeles would be out of challenges heading into the final innings.

Besides, how often does Ohtani and the Los Angeles bullpen blow a five-run lead? Not often. Even after Lowe’s double and an error by third baseman Max Muncy that allowed Lowe to score, the Dodgers were still up two heading into the eighth.

Los Angeles entered the night a tidy 36-3 when leading after seven. Callihan — who hit the first homer of his career earlier in the game with a 427-foot shot off Ohtani — gave the Pirates the lead with a three-run blast in the eighth. Spencer Horwitz then added a two-run homer to give Pittsburgh the kind of cushion it needed after Ohtani delivered a two-run home run of his own in the top of the ninth to cut the deficit to one.

“You’re not going to face too many guys like that,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “There’s one. It’s ridiculous what he’s able to do.”

Even if Ohtani showed small glimpses of vulnerability during his first-ever start at PNC Park. Ohtani acknowledged shaking off Rushing a few times, something he attributed to not working with the Los Angeles reserve catcher that often.

“It’s something you just have to have a conversation here and there and be on the same page,” Ohtani said.

The two could be working together more often in the near future after Roberts announced postgame that starter Will Smith is heading to the 10-day injured list with a neck injury.

Ohtani will have nearly a week off until his next scheduled turn in the rotation. Though the work never really stops. Roberts said the plan is for Ohtani to lead off as usual during Thursday’s series finale rather than give him a break after — statistically anyway — his toughest day on the hill this season.

That’s just the way Ohtani wants it.

“I’m always going to be prepared to play tomorrow,” he said.

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