Shohei Ohtani has won four MVPs, and now he’s making an impressive bid for an honor that has thus far eluded the two-way star: the Cy Young Award.
Problem is, the competition in the National League might be a little too stiff this year.
Ohtani is 7-2 with a 1.47 ERA so far this season. With the Los Angeles Dodgers nearly halfway through their schedule, he’s made 12 starts and thrown 73 2/3 innings. His career highs in those categories are 28 and 166, back in 2022. That year he went 15-9 with a 2.33 ERA for the Los Angeles Angels and finished fourth in the American League Cy Young race.
Ohtani’s hitting has always been more reliable than his pitching on a year-in, year-out basis. He didn’t pitch at all in 2019 or 2024, and his teams have been careful with his workload. Even now, he’s a few innings shy of qualifying for the ERA title, but with a mark that far below 2.00, he’s clearly one of the game’s top starters.
Still, he remains a long shot for the Cy Young according to oddsmakers. Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski (8-3, 1.45 in 15 starts) is the favorite, and Philadelphia’s Cristopher Sánchez (9-3, 1.80) isn’t far removed from throwing 50 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings.
Ohtani is a runaway favorite to win another MVP, of course. He isn’t on pace for the eye-popping home run and stolen base stats he’s produced in the past, but he leads the National League in on-base percentage, and when you factor in his pitching value it’s hard to make a case for anyone else.
Trivia time
The very first Cy Young Award went to a member of the Dodgers, back in 1956 when there was one honor covering both leagues. Brooklyn’s Don Newcombe won it. Since moving to Los Angeles, the Dodgers have had seven pitchers win the Cy Young. Who were they?
Performance of the week
The first two cycles of the 2026 season took place this past week. Pete Crow-Armstrong completed the single-double-triple-homer set for the Chicago Cubs on Monday over Colorado. Then Bryce Harper of the Philadelphia Phillies during a rout of the New York Mets.
Crow-Armstrong did get picked off first immediately after the single that gave him the cycle — so give the slight edge to Harper here.
Honorable mention: Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies hit three home runs in the same game Harper hit for the cycle. The only other time two teammates pulled that off was June 3, 1932, when Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees hit four home runs and Tony Lazzeri hit for the cycle. The Yankees beat the Philadelphia Athletics 20-13 that day.
Comeback of the week
The Athletics overcame a seven-run, sixth-inning deficit to beat the Los Angeles Angels 12-11 in 10 innings on Friday night. It was a wild evening, with the A’s taking a 4-0 lead before allowing 11 consecutive runs. The Angels had a win probability of 99% by the bottom of the seventh .
The comeback began an inning earlier when Zack Gelof singled home a run to make it 11-5. With two outs in the seventh, Tyler Soderstrom walked and Jacob Wilson followed with a homer to cut the deficit to four. A two-run homer in the eighth by Max Muncy made it 11-9.
The A’s were down to their last out when Jonah Heim hit a tying two-run homer in the ninth. After Muncy, the third baseman, threw a runner out at the plate in the top of the 10th, the Athletics won when Nick Kurtz drew a bases-loaded walk in the bottom half.
The A’s (38-40) are 1 1/2 games out of first place in the AL West despite what is now the worst run differential in the AL at minus-54.
Trivia answer
Sandy Koufax (three times), Clayton Kershaw (three times), Don Drysdale, Mike Marshall, Fernando Valenzuela, Orel Hershiser and Eric Gagne.
___
AP MLB:
