LOS ANGELES — Even while only carrying out one-way duties, Shohei Ohtani is something special.

Solely pitching and not hitting for the fourth time in seven starts, Ohtani continued his utter domination on the mound this season. He struck out eight Giants across seven scoreless innings on 105 pitches, scattering four hits and two walks in a 4-0 win on Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium.

By reaching 44 innings on the season, Ohtani qualified for the ERA leaderboard — and sits atop it, with a near-pristine 0.82 mark. That is the second-lowest by a Dodgers pitcher through his first seven starts of a season since the earned run became an official statistic in the National League in 1912. Only Fernando Valenzuela had a lower mark, with an 0.29 ERA after seven starts in 1981.

The Dodgers came into Wednesday’s game in sore need of a win, having dropped four straight games by at least four runs. In a sense, Ohtani was the right man to have on that mound with his team in need of a stopper, but L.A. has gone only 2-4 through his first six starts. By snapping their season-high-tying four-game losing streak, the Dodgers also won their first Ohtani start since April 15.

That can partially be explained by the fact that the Dodgers entered Wednesday averaging 2.9 runs per game with Ohtani on the mound, the lowest for any L.A. starter.

Ohtani got early run support and ran with it in his seventh start of the season, where he didn’t face significant stress until his final inning.

With one out, Ohtani gave up back-to-back knocks to Willy Adames and Matt Chapman. Drew Gilbert hammered a ball to center at 100.4 mph off the bat, but Andy Pages got under it and caught it at the warning track. Adames had broken for third on contact and was rounding the bag when Pages came up with the ball, making an easy throw to second base to double him off and end the inning.