LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani’s second start saw him record his first two strikeouts but did not see him advance beyond the first inning despite throwing only 18 pitches — a sign of how careful the Los Angeles Dodgers will continue to be with his pitching progression.

“That was the original plan,” Ohtani, speaking through an interpreter, said after the Dodgers’ 13-7 win over the Washington Nationals on Sunday. “I look forward to adding more and more pitches.”

Ohtani worked around a wild pitch and a dropped pop-up from outfielder-turned-shortstop Mookie Betts to throw a scoreless top of the first inning, while making his second start in seven days. He struck out the game’s third batter, Luis Garcia Jr., on a sweeper that dropped toward his shoe-tops, then executed a tight, arm-side slider to strike out Nathaniel Lowe and end the inning. His fastball topped out at 98.8 mph after reaching triple digits in his pitching debut on Monday.

Ohtani, who called his own pitches through a PitchCom device, said he was “able to relax much better” in his second outing. The biggest improvement, Ohtani added, was “the way my body moves when I pitch.”

“It’s something that I worked on with the pitching coaches, and I felt a lot better this time.”

Offensively, Ohtani went 2-for-19 with nine strikeouts in the five days between his starts. Ohtani has remained at the leadoff spot on his start days, which has meant rushing to put on his helmet, elbow pad and batting gloves in the middle of the first inning, then walking toward the batter’s box without hardly being able to take any practice swings.

In his pitching debut on Monday, that was followed by a strikeout. The same occurred on Sunday. But his bat came alive later in the game, after the Dodgers had finally broken through against Michael Soroka. With the bases loaded, none out and his team leading by a run in the seventh, Ohtani laced a 101.3-mph bases-clearing triple to break the game open. An inning later, he added a two-run homer — his National League-leading 26th — on a ball that just barely made it over the fence in left-center.

“He’s a unicorn,” Dodgers rookie catcher Dalton Rushing said. “He does it all.”

The Dodgers have considered the idea of moving Ohtani out of the leadoff spot on his start days — particularly at home, in order to avoid the shorter preparation time before his first plate appearance. But they are adamant about continuing to be methodical with his pitching progression. He’ll make his third start at some point in the next six to eight days and could extend into the second inning then, but it’ll be a while until he is built up like a traditional starting pitcher again.

“It’s going to be a gradual process,” Ohtani said. “I want to see improvements with the quality of the pitches that I’m throwing and then also increasing the amount of pitches.”