Baseball is a weird, weird sport.

With the Pittsburgh Pirates and Los Angeles Dodgers splitting the first two of a three-game series, the rubber match is set for Thursday at PNC Park.

This series has been bonkers so far. A ten-run seventh inning by the Dodgers powered Los Angeles to a game one win, while the worst come-from-behind team in baseball rallied from down 6-1 in the seventh to even the series for Pittsburgh.

A Paul Skenes start was wasted by the Pirates, who lost the opener 12-2 in a game that saw their bullpen experience a nuclear-level meltdown. The following day, however, the Dodgers weren’t able to capitalize with the best baseball player in the world, Shohei Ohtani, pitching for Los Angeles.

Following that first game and with Ohtani taking the field for game two, the Pirates didn’t have high hopes. But 17 runs and nine hectic innings later, the Japanese superstar was on the losing side.

As one would expect, Ohtani has performed exceptionally well against the Pirates as a batter. Coming into this series in Pittsburgh, Ohtani had 83 plate appearances (75 at-bats) against the Pirates, where he slashed .293/.361/.627 (.988 OPS) with four home runs and 10 RBI. So far this series, Ohtani is 2-for-9 with one home run, four RBI, and three strikeouts.

The only real leg up Pirate pitching has had over Ohtani at times is in the strikeout department. Oddly enough, Ohtani struck out at a 33.7% rate, 8.4% higher than his career average.

But for as stellar as the 31-year-old is as a batter, MLB’s only official two-way player hasn’t brought that same level of dominance when he pitches against the Pirates.

Some of his career lowlights on the mound have come when Pittsburgh was at the plate, a hiccup that has followed him from the Los Angeles Angels up the street to the Dodgers.

His appearance Wednesday night was second time pitching against the Pirates, and first since the 2023 season back when he was in Anaheim. Three years ago, Ohtani made a July 21st start at home in Angel Stadium. In that start, Ohtani tossed 6.1 innings, but allowed six hits, five earned runs, a walk, and a whopping four home runs.

And perhaps what is most surprising are the names that have launched the ball while donning black and yellow.

The righty made it through the first three innings of that Angels game, but in the fourth, designated hitter Ji Man Choi got a hold of one and sent it deep to right field to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead. Choi played just 23 games as a Pirate, but made sure to notch one of his six home runs against Ohtani.

The very next batter, 2021 first overall pick, rookie batter, and *checks notes* right fielder Henry Davis followed up Choi with a solo homer of his own, to double Pittsburgh’s lead. That was Davis’ third home run of Davis’ first year in the bigs.

Ohtani rebounded to conclude the inning three batters later, but in the fifth inning he surrendered a two-run homer at the hands of Jack Suwinski. Given that Suwinski was in the middle of an eventual 26-homer campaign, perhaps that swing was the least surprising of the bunch.

The long ball problems weren’t over for Ohtani, who watched as Davis racked up a second homer to lead off the sixth and put some fight back into the Pirates.

Ohtani would survive the rest of the sixth, and pitched one out into the seventh before he exited the game. It was a very uncharacteristic outing for Ohtani, who was in the midst of a 3.14 ERA season for the Angels. Fortunately for him, his counterpart in Johan Oviedo struggled even more.

The Pirate righty was tagged for three hits, three walks, and five earned runs en route to picking up his 11th loss of the year. Oviedo left after four innings, but the first arm out of the bullpen almost immediately allowed two home runs to turn momentum back over to the Angels.

The halos eventually won 8-5, and Ohtani, despite allowing all five runs, was in line for the win.

Ohtani has made 111 starts as a pitcher in the major leagues. To date, the Pirates are the only team to smack four home runs off Ohtani. And Davis, a career .173 hitter with a .551 OPS, is the only batter to homer off him twice in a game.

Three years later, Ohtani got his chance for revenge against the Pirates, sporting new colors this time around.

He was less than crisp early on, perhaps setting the stage for an opportunistic batting order to take their chances against him. The first two batters reached to lead off the bottom of the first, and the ace issued a pair of walks through the first two frames.

Unlike his first start against the Pirates, Ohtani batted against them this time as well. In the bottom of the third, the Los Angeles leadoff hitter was robbed of a left-field home run by Bryan Reynolds.

The Dodgers were able to score two runs in the fourth inning, but Ohtani gave one back when Tyler Callihan sent one towards the river for his first home run in the big leagues.

Ohtani held the Pirates off until the seventh, when the Bucco barrage started. Callihan drew a walk to lead off, and Jake Mangum singled to put two on with no one out. Three batters later, Brandon Lowe put one into right field for a line-drive double, scoring Callihan and Mangum and chasing Ohtani from the game.

And this time around, his team couldn’t hold the lead the way his Angels had back in 2023. Pittsburgh scored once more in the seventh and five in the eighth (propelled by Callihan’s second home run) to rally for a 9-8 win.

It was arguably the biggest and most important win for the Pirates this season, but it was also another victory against a pitcher in Ohtani who gives most teams fits.

In two starts and 13 total innings pitched against the Pirates in his career, Ohtani has now surrendered eight earned runs, four walks, 15 strikeouts, and five home runs. That’s a 5.54 ERA, nearly twice his career ERA as a pitcher. Ohtani only has a worse ERA against three teams in all of MLB.

Even in the strikeout department, Ohtani’s numbers have dipped slightly against the Pirates. In those 13 innings, he has racked up 15 strikeouts. That’s an impressive figure, but it’s still about a strikeout less than the 11.2 strikeouts-per-nine figure he boasted coming into this series. Those differences, even if marginal, have given the Pirates some added life as they swing their way into runs.

Baseball truly is a weird sport.