Former Pittsburgh Pirates play-by-play man Tim Neverett left Pittsburgh for his native New England after the 2015 season. Since then, he’s been a part of four World Series broadcast teams: one in Boston (2018) and three more with the Los Angeles Dodgers (2020, 2024-25).
This week, Neverett is back in a PNC Park broadcast booth on the radio call for L.A.’s three-game series against the Pirates. It didn’t take long for the memories of 2009-15 to come flooding back.
“When I saw people hanging off the Clemente Bridge, trying to get a glimpse of the field during the (2013) wild card game, those are some of the baseball memories I’ll always have,” Neverett told me Tuesday. “People will (say), ‘You’ve been part of four World Series teams.’ But it was nothing like Oct. 1, 2013. Still, in my mind, that was one of the greatest baseball environments I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Neverett joined me on 105.9 The X in advance of the Dodgers’ 12-3 win over the Pirates in Game 1 of the series. Now he’ll call Shohei Ohtani’s start in Game 2 on Wednesday night. That will be Ohtani’s eighth game at PNC Park, but the two-way superstar has never pitched in Pittsburgh before.
Last year’s National League MVP went 1 for 4 with a pair of RBIs against the Pirates on Tuesday. He began the series as the National League’s OPS leader at .939.
The 31-year-old is having a brilliant start to 2026 on the mound. He is 6-2 with an ERA of 0.74 and a WHIP of 0.79. After skipping the 2024 season on the mound and just hitting up until June 16, 2025, Ohtani ended up making 14 pitching appearances last year, posting a 2.87 ERA.
Neverett says the biggest difference between Ohtani in ’25 and now is that he has his fastball velocity back.
“Last year, he really didn’t unleash the fastball like he is this year. Consistently 97, 98, 99 (mph). He can get up around 100. And the fastball command, everything else works off of that. He has been pinpoint in terms of his fastball accuracy,” Neverett said. “If he’s not walking people, he is getting them out one way or another.”
The Dodgers have decided to pitch Ohtani in a six-man rotation, which Neverett says has helped his return to the hill.
“He is essentially pitching once a week. They may give him a day off (from hitting) after (a start). They are trying to find the right formula — rest-wise — for him. And I think they may have stumbled on it,” Neverett said.
“To steal a term from the NBA: load management. I hate the term. And I hate the way they use it in the NBA. But at the same time, I think it is working for Ohtani.”
Because of the pitching, Neverett sees the potential for this Dodgers squad to win a third straight World Series, and perhaps to be improved from last year by the time October hits.
“I think it’s better because you have Ohtani as a full-time member of your pitching staff. You’ve got (Roki) Sasaki not coming out of the bullpen. He’s starting. And he has finally figured it out,” Neverett said. “We’re seeing the emergence of Justin Wrobleski (Thursday’s starter). Each of his last two starts have been two of his best major league starts. We are seeing guys develop right in front of our eyes in terms of pitching.”
Also in our “Breakfast With Benz” podcast, Neverett and I discuss Major League Baseball’s looming labor unrest from the perspective of Los Angeles’ big-market point of view. We also talk more about Wrobleski, Paul Skenes and that painful end to the Pirates’ 2015 wild-card season.
