Los Angeles – Shohei Ohtani approached his first departure, which qualifies as an extension of his pitch rehabilitation, expecting to sit somewhere in the mid -90s with his quick ball, as had been the case in the late stadiums of his progress. But the excitement of pitching in its first match in almost two years took over, the adrenaline which comes with a performance in front of more than 50,000 people swung it, and before it knows, Ohtani occurred.
Its 10th throw Monday evening timed 100.2 MPH. His 17th arrived at 99.9 MPH. This sparked an excitement, but, also, to the members of the Los Angeles Dodgers who swore to pay attention to his return to pitch, a certain caution.
“I was hoping just over 97, 96 than 100,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, speaking after the 6-3 victory of his team over the Padres of San Diego, with a smile. “But when you are a competitor, you just try to get out of the guys. And if you have 100 in the tank, you will use it. And that’s what it does.”
In addition to a handful of notable radar readings, the beginnings of Ohtani Pitch was relatively without incident. He launched a round, as planned, and gave up a round on a sacrificial fly, requiring 28 throws to record the first three withdrawals of the game. Later, he went 2-in-4 as an designated striker, removing twice but also driving in a few points.
More importantly, however, however, Monday marked the beginning of something: double -meaning ohtani is back, here to stay as long as its body will allow it.
“Not quite satisfied with the results as a whole,” said Ohtani through an interpreter, “but I think the biggest point to remember for me is that I feel good enough to be able to go out for my next outing.”
The media threshing video of the dodgers praising Ohtani’s return to pitching was broadcast on the dashboard of the Dodger Stadium about 25 minutes before the first step, after which the camera cut directly to Ohtani – located at the top of the mound of the statements beyond the left field, sailing through its delivery while preparing to face the top of the Padres range. A closed window crowds roar with excitation.
After having made his way through a parade of High -Fives of Pirogue, Ohtani entered the field, launched heating grounds and pulled the first throw to Fernando Tatis Jr. – a lead of 97.6 MPH for a strike. Tatis finally reached a shallow fly ball which fell just out of the reach of the central field player Andy Pages, then reached the second goal on wild land. Luis Arraez followed with an online driving single in the opposite manner to move tatis to third.
The next striker, Manny Machado, seemed to get rid of after going around a two -strike swing. But the first base referee Ryan Blakney judged the opposite, bringing the count to 2-2 and later causing a sacrifice fly which marked the first round of the match.
Ohtani followed by soil induction from Gavin Sheets and Xander Bogaerts, then quickly prepared to strike. He jogging towards the canoe and leaning against the balustrade while attaching his elbow guard and his shot gloves. He refused a bottle of water from the colleague Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but caught a towel of the Bob Geren field coordinator to wipe the sweat of his face, then headed for the striker to face Dylan stops, the AS of the Padres, without taking training balls in the stick.
Roberts was located next to him and could not stop looking.
“I was a little fanboying for a half-manche,” he said.
Ohtani struck during his first appearance on the plate, but later recorded as many sure he abandoned. A double field opposed in the third round equalized the scoring at 1-1; A base to the right field in the fourth crowned the five -point round which mainly put the match.
“He never stops surprising me,” said the third goal of the Dodgers, Max Muncy. “We will see how it progresses for him.”
Ohtani, 30, worked as a two -way transformer player from 2021 to 2023, winning two unanimous MVP prizes and also ending as a finalist in Aaron Judge. In attack, Ohtani reduced .277 / .379 / .585 with 124 circuits and 57 stolen bases. On the mound, he posted an MPM of 2.84 with 542 stick withdrawals and 143 steps in 428⅓ sleeves. But Ohtani was diagnosed with a second tear in his ulnar collateral ligament after starting on August 23, 2023, and underwent surgery a month later.
Ohtani sailed through the initial stages of its pitch rehabilitation towards the end of its first season with the Dodgers in 2024, while in the road to the first 50/50 performance in the history of baseball, then essentially stopped launching in October. The plan was for Ohtani to restart its progress relatively early in the winter which followed, but it then torn a labrum in its left shoulder not launched during match 2 of the World Series, requiring surgery and prompted training in the spring to essentially serve its intersane launch program.
Ohtani took a progress break again leading to the opening series of the Dodgers season in Japan around mid-March, then started the construction process slowly when the Dodgers returned to the United States. Ohtani faced the strikers for the first time before a match at Citi Field in New York on May 25, launching 22 throws. He did it again at Dodger Stadium on May 31, slightly increasing his production to 29 locations. Ten days later, he nailed 15 additional locations during a pre-match training session in Petco Park in San Diego and mainly considered it.
The bidirectional designation of Ohtani, which allows him to act as an additional launcher and to contribute what the director general of Dodgers, Brandon Gomes, described as “free sleeves”, made the team more comfortable putting it back.
Asked before the game on the concern he might lose his best striker if something is wrong on the pitch side, Gomes said: “I think it’s true for anyone who comes out and goes out on the mound. But he has gone through all this rehabilitation process and he feels good and it is the next step in progression.”
The plan is of Ohtani to take the mound every six to eight days and add at least one round each time until it is built to act as a traditional starting launcher. He should continue to strike every day, but dodgers are also aware of the endurance required to assume a bidirectional role. There is also the possibility of unforeseen factors – like launching your fast ball stronger than you intend to.
Once its debugging beginnings were completed, Ohtani was invited to make his next departure about a week later.
“This is my expectation,” he said. “But I struck 100 today, so I want to see where my body feels and how it reacts.”
