Shohei Ohtani records his first three-hit game of the season as Dodgers shut out Cubs

Shohei Ohtani has generally been a slow starter offensively in recent years, but in a broader sense, the start of this season has been notably different for him.

This two-way superstar for the Dodgers has been dazzling on the pitching mound, surrendering only one earned run in the first 24 innings of the season, achieving an ERA as low as an almost perfect 0.38. Yet, in the batter's box, Shohei Ohtani has been unable to genuinely get into form.

During the first two games of the weekend series against the Cubs, Ohtani had already shown positive signs of warming up. And in today's series finale, he finally erupted completely, delivering his first three-hit performance of the season in the Dodgers' 6-0 shutout victory over the Cubs at Dodger Stadium.

Ohtani was just one triple away from hitting for the cycle, while also ending two somewhat unimpressive streaks. In the fifth inning, he hit a double off Shota Imanaga, breaking a slump of six consecutive games without an extra-base hit. In the seventh inning, he blasted a solo home run against Hoby Milner, ending his longest homerless drought since joining the Dodgers—a stretch of 11 games—and marking his sixth home run of the season.

Before today, Ohtani's OPS for March through April was 0.801, which would rank as the third-lowest monthly figure in his career for months with at least 100 plate appearances. However, the opening month is not yet over, and there is a pattern with Ohtani: whenever he goes through a tough period at the plate, he always responds with a performance that makes everyone forget he was ever struggling.