On Tuesday night, Shohei Ohtani started his first game for the Los Angeles Dodgers this season and appeared to already be in midseason form. The reigning National League Most Valuable Player struck out six batters over six innings of scoreless ball en route to LA’s 4–1 win over the Cleveland Guardians.
On this episode of Baseball Bar-B-Cast, Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman review the start from the Japanese superstar, discuss why this could be the beginning of a possible NL Cy Young campaign and highlight how funny it is that Ohtani sometimes pitches and hits in the same inning. They then talk about Roki Sasaki’s first start of the season and the reasons for optimism as he adjusts to MLB hitters.
Later, Jake and Jordan welcome the voice of NBC’s Sunday Night Baseball and the Detroit Tigers, Jason Benetti, as he talks about his road to becoming a baseball broadcaster, why he feels a deep responsibility in this role and some of the things he’s looking forward to this season. The guys then get into the Seattle Mariners and Milwaukee Brewers handing out contract extensions to players who have yet to make their MLB debuts and highlight Jose Fernandez’s first game in the big leagues with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
0:00 – Start of the show
1:10 – The Opener: Shohei on the bump
22:24 – Roki Sasaki’s first start of 2026
25:20 – Jason Benetti joins the show
38:04 – The importance of Sunday Night Baseball for MLB
57:01 – We Need to Talk About: Pre-debut extensions
1:13:15 – Around the League: Andrew Painter debuts
1:19:43 – Jose Fernandez’s immediate impact
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