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Sign up NowLOS ANGELES — It’s baseball, you know, so anything can happen. Paul Blackburn, the forgotten man even among missing Mets starters, made the most famous player on earth look human.
Three times, the incomparable Shohei Ohtani batted against Blackburn, the soft-tossing right-hander who was making his 2025 debut. And all three times Blackburn won the battle.
Twice Blackburn struck out Ohtani, then on Blackburn’s final pitch on his fantastic night at gorgeous Dodger Stadium, he got Ohtani to ground out with two runners on. (Ohtani, unsurprisingly, would later homer off Mets reliever Max Kranick — Ohtani’s MLB leading 23rd homer — and also hit a game-tying, ninth-inning sacrifice fly off Mets closer Edwin Diaz before the Mets won 4-3 in the 10th.)
Seemingly so far down the Mets’ very deep depth chart, Blackburn was only occasionally cited in press reports on injury updates. But if this keeps up, he will force his way into a very happy Mets pitching picture.