Drew Rasmussen stays in the groove despite loss to Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers

Drew Rasmussen has done many impressive things on the mound since joining the Tampa Bay Rays in a May 2021 trade.

Somewhere on that list was his mastery of Shohei Ohtani, who otherwise is one of the game’s most dynamic and dangerous hitters. He had shown that in his first 31 career games against the Rays, hitting .351 with 11 homers, 30 RBIs and a 1.172 OPS.

Including Ohtani’s first two trips to the plate on Tuesday at Dodger Stadium, Rasmussen – the former Mt. Spokane standout – held him hitless through seven at-bats and struck him out five times.

Leading off the sixth inning, Ohtani finally swung back, launching Rasmussen’s first pitch over the centerfield fence and leading the Dodgers to a 1-0 victory.

Rasmussen was coming off back-to-back starts in which he threw seven shutout innings, allowing one hit on June 5 at Miami and two on June 10 against Boston.

And aside from the Ohtani homer on a 92-mph cutter that ended his scoreless streak at 19 innings, Rasmussen was dominant over seven innings again on Tuesday, allowing six hits total with no walks, striking out seven, throwing a career-high 102 pitches.

“He was pretty outstanding,” Rays manager Kevin Cash told reporters at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. “He was really outstanding. Shohei, I think he got him on a cutter earlier in the game, and Ras was trying to get ahead 0-0 right there in the sixth inning and Shohei was ready for it.

“But couldn’t be more impressed with the way Ras went about it.”

Rasmussen wasn’t as sharp as usual with first-pitch strikes and gave up four singles to the first seven Dodgers batters, but was able to keep them from scoring and eventually got in a groove, making broad use of his full arsenal, including his three different fastballs.

“We just kind of shotgun approached it with everything,” Rasmussen said in the clubhouse. “We went to a little bit more even usage on the (four-seam) fastball, two-seamer, cutter and then the changeup. We were just able to stay off barrels for the most part.

“I don’t think it was particularly sharp. We were able to change speeds and shapes enough that we were able to limit hard contact and get balls hit at guys, which there is some luck that is involved with that. We’re very fortunate that it worked out that way.”

Ohtani’s homer was the ninth allowed this season by Rasmussen, clocked at 106.9 mph off the bat and measured at 427 feet.

“Good player,” Rasmussen deadpanned. “I think he’s got a bright future.”

Rasmussen, who threw 86 pitches through six innings, was adamant about staying in the game to pitch the seventh and got the chance after Cash and pitching coach Kyle Snyder talked it over.

Why?

“Maybe some frustration,” he said. “Maybe, I don’t know, man, I think we’re all competitive. You don’t like knowing your day’s over, especially ending that way.”

Coming off the back-to-back starts of at least seven shutout innings allowing two or fewer hits, Rasmussen entered Tuesday’s game looking to join an elite group.

Only three traditional starters in the live ball era (since 1920) ever had three straight starts like that.

Rasmussen showed early he wouldn’t be able to join Randy Johnson (1997), Damian Moss (2002) and Justin Verlander (2019), as the Dodgers got four hits in their first seven batters.

Since 2021, Rasmussen has a 2.76 ERA that is second best among all major-league pitchers who’ve thrown at least 500 innings.

The only one better? Ohtani, at 2.62.