The Cleveland Guardians are visiting the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday, with first pitch set for 10:10 p.m. ET/7:10 p.m. PT. Shohei Ohtani will take the bump for the Dodgers, facing off against Guardians righty Tanner Bibee in Chavez Ravine. Looking at the odds, lines and Ohtani’s strikeouts prop on DraftKings Sportsbook, here is a breakdown of how the two-way superstar could perform in his first outing of the regular season.
Shohei Ohtani Strikeouts Prop
DraftKings Sportsbook currently has Ohtani’s strikeouts thrown line set at 6.5 for Tuesday’s contest against the Guardians.
Ohtani returned to the mound in 2025 after nearly two years off of pitching. He started off on a pretty strict pitch count, effectively serving as an opener for two months. Ohtani got back to full strength in time for the playoffs, where he went 2-1 with a 4.43 ERA, 1.131 WHIP and 12.4 strikeouts per nine innings. In the regular season, Ohtani wound up going 1-1 with a 2.87 ERA, 1.043 WHIP, 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings and 1.1 WAR. For his career, Ohtani enters 2026 averaging 11.4 strikeouts per nine innings – the highest mark for a starting pitcher in MLB history, minimum 500 innings pitched.
In Spring Training, Ohtani went 1-1 with a 3.24 ERA, 1.15 WHIP and 16.2 strikeouts per nine innings. Unlike when he played for Japan in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Ohtani did not pitch for his country in this year’s rendition of the tournament.
Based on FanGraphs‘ Steamer model, Ohtani is projected to go 9-6 with a 3.42 ERA, 1.15 WHIP and 152 strikeouts across 22 starts and 114.0 innings in 2026. His 2.6 projected fWAR ranks No. 38 among starting pitchers, while his projected 10.5 strikeouts per nine innings ranks No. 9.
Shohei Ohtani picks, predictions
When it comes to striking out opposing batters, there really isn’t anyone better than Ohtani. He is going to punch guys out as long as he’s on the mound, so the only factor up in the air is how long he lasts.
Ohtani averaged 5.8 innings per start across his final three seasons with the Angels. In those 74 starts, he cleared 6.5 strikeouts 45 times, good for a 60.8% hit rate on Tuesday’s line. But after undergoing elbow surgery in September 2023 and taking all of 2024 off from pitching, Ohtani only reached that mark in four of his 14 outings, most of which lasted 3.0 innings or fewer.
Now that the injury is even further in Ohtani’s rear-view mirror, he shouldn’t have as hard of a limit on his workload moving forward. He tossed 4.1 and 4.0 innings in his two Spring Training appearances, recording 11 of his 12 outs by way of the K on March 24. A week later, Dave Roberts said he expects Ohtani to throw around 6.0 innings in his regular season debut, but that he wouldn’t necessarily give the righty an early hook if he is pitching efficiently. Including playoffs, Ohtani has recorded at least seven strikeouts in 38 of his 57 appearances that have gone for at least 6.0 innings in his career.
I trust Ohtani to go pretty deep against the Guardians, who rank No. 21 with 3.4 runs per game and No. 24 with a 78 OPS+ this season. Cleveland is also tied for the second-most strikeouts in the big leagues with 55 through five games. Once you get past Steven Kwan and José Ramírez, the rest of the Guardians’ lineup is pretty strikeout-happy. FanGraphs projects Kyle Manzardo, Bo Naylor, Daniel Schneemann, Gabriel Arias, CJ Kayfus, Austin Hedges, David Fry and Rhys Hoskins to all post strikeout rates above 24% this season, after all. As it stands, Arias’ is over 40% while Fry is at 50% and Manzardo’s is at 52.6%.
Ohtani also had a 1.71 ERA and 12.9 strikeouts per nine innings at Dodger Stadium last season, compared to his 3.81 ERA and 11.1 K/9 on the road.
