Dodgers Week 5: Starting pitching carrying the load, Max Muncy powers up

Pitcher of the week

**Tyler Glasnow** is off to a fantastic start to 2026, and had his best start yet on Thursday in San Francisco, with nine strikeouts in eight scoreless innings to beat the Giants. Glasnow retired his final 14 batters faced, and his 88 game score tied Sandy Alcantara (April 1 for the Marlins) for the best showing by a starting pitcher in MLB this season. “It was a little tense early on, probably trying too hard. I think as the game went on I was just thinking about keeping my hands and my body loose,” Glasnow told reporters Thursday in San Francisco. “Talking with Connor (McGuiness) and Mark (Prior) in between, I think I just got into a good place as the game went on.” Glasnow’s 88 game score is the best by a Dodgers starter since Blake Snell put up a 90 game score in Game 1 of last year’s National League Championship Series in Milwaukee. Glasnow was so good that he relegated Justin Wrobleski’s excellent week to most honorable mention status. Wrobleski allowed only one run in seven innings at Coors Field on Monday, then worked through traffic to keep the Cubs scoreless on Sunday at Dodger Stadium. Normally one run in 13 innings wins you pitcher of the week here, but Glasnow had a special performance.

Week 5 results

4-3 record 38 runs scored (5.43 per game) 19 runs allowed (2.71 per game) .780 pythagorean win percentage

Year to date

19-9 record 159 runs scored (5.68 per game) 92 runs allowed (3.29 per game) .731 pythagorean win percentage (20-8)

Miscellany

**Snapping a skid**: Sunday was a welcome site for **Shohei Ohtani**, who reached base four times, including a double, walk, and home run. The latter was the first home run for Ohtani in two weeks, after going 59 plate appearances in between long balls. That was the longest homer drought for Ohtani since joining the Dodgers — he also had 47 PA and 46 PA without a home run in 2025, and streaks of 45 PA and 40 PA in 2024. The 59 PA without a home run was Ohtani’s longest since ending 2022 with 93 homerless PA with the Angels, the longest streak of his career. **Pretty fast for a pitcher**: Now that he’s back to full-time two-way status this season, it’s understandable if **Shohei Ohtani** tries to conserve energy whenever possible. For instance, he didn’t pitch at all in 2024 after elbow surgery, and stole 59 bases, more than doubling his career high. In 2025 he stole 20 bases, but 11 of those were in his first 47 games, before his pitching really ramped up. He dialed it back a bit with nine steals in his final 111 games. This year, Ohtani did not even attempt a stolen base in his first 21 games. But last week he swiped three bases in three tries, all of them in the first inning. **Play of the week**: This ended up getting overshadowed by a bullpen implosion and the Dodgers losing a game they led 4-0 in the seventh inning, but the twirling throw from Andy Pages, the laser relay by Hyeseong Kim, and Will Smith’s second great tag of the game at home plate prevented the go-ahead run from scoring in the eighth inning on Friday against the Cubs.

Transactions

**Monday**: After diminished velocity rang alarm bells, closer **Edwin Díaz** landed on the injured list and will miss three months or so after arthroscopic surgery to remove loose bodies from his right elbow on Wednesday. Right-hander **Jake Eder** was recalled from Oklahoma City. **Tuesday**: After two days away for the birth of his daughter, **Freddie Freeman** returned from paternity leave. **Ryan Ward** went back to Triple-A after collecting two hits with a run batted in during his first major league stint.

Game results

• Monday: Dodgers 12, Rockies 3
• Tuesday: Giants 3, Dodgers 1
• Wednesday: Giants 3, Dodgers 0
• Thursday: Dodgers 3, Giants 0
• Friday: Cubs 6, Dodgers 4
• Saturday: Dodgers 12, Cubs 4
• Sunday: Dodgers 6, Cubs 0 | Player | PA | R | H | 2B | HR | RBI | BB | BA/OBP/SLG | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Muncy | 24 | 8 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 6 | .444/.583/1.056 | | Rojas | 11 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 | .500/.500/.900 | | Rushing | 21 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 3 | .294/.429/.647 | | Freeland | 16 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | .308/.438/.462 | | Espinal | 10 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .333/.333/.444 | | Kim | 20 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | .368/.400/.368 | | Ohtani | 32 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | .231/.375/.385 | | Tucker | 25 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .174/.240/.304 | | Pages | 27 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 1 | .200/.222/.320 | | Smith | 14 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | .77/.143/.308 | | Hernández | 29 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | .154/.241/.192 | | Freeman | 25 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | .174/.240/.174 | | Call | 11 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .100/.182/.100 | | Ward | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000/.000/.000 | | Offense | 266 | 38 | 57 | 14 | 8 | 32 | 29 | .245/.330/.408 | | Pitcher | Record | IP | H | R | BB | SO | ERA | WHIP | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Glasnow | 1-0 | 8.0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 0.00 | 0.250 | | Ohtani | 0-0 | 6.0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0.00 | 0.833 | | Wrobleski | 2-0 | 13.0 | 12 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 0.69 | 1.231 | | Sheehan | 0-0 | 6.3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 1.42 | 0.789 | | Yamamoto | 0-1 | 7.0 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 3.86 | 1.143 | | Sasaki | 1-0 | 5.0 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 7.20 | 1.600 | | Starters | 4-1 | 45.3 | 35 | 9 | 9 | 47 | 1.79 | 0.971 | | Hurt | 0-0 | 3.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.00 | 0.333 | | Klein | 0-0 | 1.3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.00 | 0.750 | | Henriquez | 0-0 | 2.3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3.86 | 1.714 | | Eder | 0-0 | 2.0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4.50 | 1.000 | | Scott | 0-1, Sv | 2.7 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6.75 | 1.125 | | Treinen | 0-0 | 1.0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 9.00 | 3.000 | | Dreyer | 0-1 | 2.7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 10.13 | 1.500 | | Vesia | 0-0 | 0.7 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 27.00 | 4.500 | | Bullpen | 0-2, Sv | 15.7 | 15 | 10 | 6 | 15 | 5.74 | 1.340 | | Totals | 4-3 | 61.0 | 50 | 19 | 15 | 62 | 2.80 | 1.066 | **Previous reviews**: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4

Up next

The Dodgers run the Juan Encarnación gauntlet, finishing up the homestand against the Miami Marlins before hitting the road to face the Cardinals in St. Louis to open the month of May.