Shohei Ohtani’s 2-way brilliance returns, ace closer Mason Miller shows vulnerability and more: 5 takeaways from Dodgers-Padres series

Ever since the San Diego Padres launched themselves out of irrelevance at the beginning of the decade to become one of the main characters in the National League, their rivalry with the Los Angeles Dodgers has been one of the most intriguing storylines in MLB. This week at Petco Park, the two Southern California foes clashed for the first time in 2026, renewing the rivalry with a compelling three-game set that offered reasons for optimism on both sides. It was the first of four scheduled regular-season series between the two clubs, but given how well both teams have been playing, perhaps we’re headed for another eventual matchup in October as well, which would sustain an even-year trend after they met in the NLDS in 2020, 2022 and 2024.

This week’s games tilted slightly in Los Angeles’ favor. The Padres snagged the series opener with a narrow 1-0 win, with Michael King outdueling Yoshinobu Yamamoto while Miguel Andujar drove in the game’s only run with a solo homer in the first inning. The Dodgers responded Tuesday with a one-run victory of their own, a 5-4 triumph featuring a two-homer game from Freddie Freeman. In the series finale Wednesday, Shohei Ohtani smashed a leadoff home run to give himself instant run support before twirling five scoreless innings, delivering the headlining act in a comfortable 4-0 Dodgers victory that clinched the series and reestablished L.A.’s 1.5-game lead atop the NL West.

The Padres and Dodgers next meet for three games June 26-28 at Dodger Stadium, followed shortly thereafter by a four-game series July 2-5 back in San Diego. Should these teams remain neck-and-neck in the standings all season, their final series down the stretch — Sept. 22-24 in L.A. — would be excellent theater.

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This week was a nice appetizer, but there’s plenty of baseball ahead. For now, here are five takeaways from the first round of Dodgers vs. Padres in 2026:

Shohei Ohtani resumes his 2-way duties in full

Before Wednesday, Ohtani had spent four of his previous five starts on the mound as a pitcher only, handing off his usual DH duties to his teammates. This was a notable diversion from the vast majority of his career during which he has continued his role as a hitter even on his days to pitch. The Dodgers wanted to give Ohtani a brief respite from his usual two-way workload, in part to let him focus on maintaining his exquisite pitching form but also to ease off some pressure amid a relatively cold stretch at the plate.

But in the series finale in San Diego, Ohtani the starting pitcher was slotted back in his usual leadoff spot, an earned return to his familiar post after his bat had started to heat back up, hitting .522/.621/.913 over his previous seven games. That hot-hitting continued Wednesday before he even had to throw a pitch of his own, as Ohtani blasted Randy Vasquez’s first toss of the game out to center field for a leadoff homer to give himself a 1-0 lead to work with right out of the gate.

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Ohtani reached base one more time Wednesday, via walk, in the fifth inning to raise his season OPS to .885. That’s still below his spectacular standard but much more palatable compared to the sub-.800 mark he held just a week ago. And yet, his exploits at the plate were still secondary to his ongoing brilliance on the mound. After retiring the first nine Padres in order, Ohtani dodged trouble in the fourth and fifth innings to keep his ledger spotless, completing another scoreless outing – his fourth of the season – to lower his ERA to 0.73 across 49 innings. While it was Ohtani’s shortest outing of the season, it was still another demonstration of his determination to deliver his best pitching season yet. We’ll have to wait another week to see him continue his efforts on the hill, but in the meantime, we can enjoy the fact that Ohtani the hitter seems to be rounding back into form. He’ll be back in the leadoff spot Friday in Milwaukee.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto has been good, not great

Few pitchers have ever entered a regular season with as much anticipation as Yamamoto coming off his legendary heroics last postseason en route to his second World Series title in two years as a Dodger. Those epic showings in tandem with his third-place finish in NL Cy Young voting raised the expectations for Yamamoto going into his third major-league season, with the popular sentiment being that the 27-year-old right-hander was on the cusp of joining Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes in the inner-circle of the game’s very best starting pitchers. But nine starts into his season, and Yamamoto has yet to exhibit a prolonged stretch of dominance quite yet. That’s not to say he’s been bad by any stretch – Yamamoto’s seven innings of one-run ball against San Diego on Monday lowered his ERA to 3.32, and his 0.96 WHIP ranks sixth among qualified NL starters. But it’s also fair to label Yamamoto’s effectiveness as underwhelming relative to the preseason hype and his prior track record.

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The stuff, for the most part, is unchanged. His velocity is right in line with where it was last season and he continues to lead predominantly with his four-seamer and splitter, with a healthy diet of cutters and curveballs mixed in beyond those two go-to offerings.

Strike-throwing has also not been a problem; Yamamoto’s 5.4% walk rate is a career-low mark and bested only by Skenes and Cristopher Sanchez among NL starters.

What Yamamoto has struggled with, however, is limiting slugging and starting outings on the right foot. Both of these themes were on display Monday, when Andujar smacked a solo homer in the opening frame before Yamamoto settled in nicely for the remainder of the outing. Yamamoto now has a 7.00 ERA in the first inning this year compared to a 2.63 mark for the remainder of his frames. This may be just a small-sample fluke. The more concerning trend is that Andujar’s blast was already the ninth long ball surrendered by Yamamoto this season across 57 innings after allowing just 14 homers in 173 2/3 innings a year ago. This reflects a shift in the distribution of his batted balls allowed, as Yamamoto’s ground ball rate has dropped to 42.8%, a sharp decline from the 51% rate he held over his first two major-league seasons.

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Overall, the ingredients are still intact for Yamamoto to return to his ace form. But the uptick in his susceptibility to slugging is something to monitor, and will likely need to be addressed with improved command or an adjusted attack plan if Yamamoto wants to re-enter the Cy Young race that many expected him to be squarely involved in. His next start is slated for Sunday in Milwaukee.

For the first few weeks of the season, the Padres closer had climbed to truly comical levels of dominance, with nearly every outing featuring so little resistance from hitters that it was becoming difficult to envision how anyone would summon any semblance of a rally against him. Miller stretched his franchise record scoreless innings streak (that dated back to Aug. 5 of last season) to 34 2/3 innings before surrendering two runs against the Cubs on April 28, but Miller still emerged victorious in that outing, even as his ERA ballooned from 0.00 to 1.26 in a blink. While Miller has not allowed an earned run since that rare messy showing against Chicago, he has looked at least somewhat shakier since the calendar flipped to May, and had his first real slip-up Tuesday, when Miller endured his first loss since May 17 of last season. Miller’s errant pick-off throw in the top of the ninth allowed pinch-runner Alex Call to advance from first to third base, putting him in position to eventually score the go-ahead run on Andy Pages’ sac fly after a nine-pitch battle, which Freeman described as “one of the greatest at-bats” he’s ever seen.