PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania - Shohei Ohtani pitched 6-2/3 quality innings and launched a two-run home run but could not earn his seventh win of the season as the Pittsburgh Pirates rallied to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 9-8 on Wednesday.
The two-way superstar exited the mound at PNC Park in line for the win despite allowing a season-high four runs, three earned, and seeing his ERA climb above 1.00 for the first time this year.
He was able to work with a 6-1 lead following Ryan Ward's sixth-inning grand slam and left with the Dodgers up 6-3 after surrendering two runs in the bottom of the seventh.
Ohtani, who is among the National League's Cy Young Award contenders, fanned six, gave up six hits and three walks, and threw 61 of his 102 pitches for strikes.
The Pirates turned the game around with five runs in the bottom of the eighth inning.
They took the lead on Tyler Callihan's three-run bomb, his second home run of the game, before Spencer Horwitz made it 9-6 with his two-run deep fly.
Ohtani brought the Dodgers back within a run with his 12th home run of the year with one out in the top of the ninth.
Having been robbed of a homer at the left-field wall in the third, Ohtani made sure he cleared the fence with a 412-foot (126-meter) blast over center field off Gregory Soto before the left-hander retired the last two Los Angeles batters.
