A's Position Player Strikes out Los Angeles Dodgers Star

This was Pereda's third outing of the season, going one inning in each, and he holds an ERA of 21.00. He has struck out one batter in each of those three outings, but Ohtani is by far the biggest name of the bunch.

The first strikeout came against the Chicago Cubs in the A's home opener in West Sacramento. The A's lost that one 18-3, and the strikeout came against pitcher Colin Rea. That's right, in 2025 we had a position player pitching and a pitcher batting, and Pereda won that battle. Not too long after, Rea was promoted to the rotation and has been solid for Chicago.

A couple of weeks later, the A's were being blown out by the Texas Rangers, 15-2, and Pereda came on yet again. He struck out left fielder Dustin Harris on a slider down in the zone in Harris' only at-bat of the game. He went 1-for-14 in his at-bats after that one before getting optioned to Triple-A.

Thursday's strikeout of Ohtani was the first one of Pereda's short career as a part-time pitcher that came on a swing, and it came against a pretty formidable opponent.

While it's never fun to get blown out, there are still moments like these in blowouts where there can be some fun involved that may lead to a better vibe in the clubhouse. The A's have lost seven games by eight or more runs this season, and in the game that follows a blowout loss, they are 5-2.

Some of that could be because they have faced the Rockies and White Sox after two of those big losses, but they have also won games against the Texas Rangers, New York Yankees, and Los Angeles Dodgers following a blowout loss.

The takeaway here is that the A's are a resilient bunch, and being able to have fun when the backup cacher strikes out the best player in baseball is likely a big help in keeping the group loose over the long season.