LOS ANGELES—After his historic inaugural season as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani had arguably one of the greatest seasons in MLB history. Leading the Boys in Blue to the 2024 World Series title over the New York Yankees, while becoming the first ballplayer in Major League Baseball history to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases.
What could he possibly do for an encore? Oh right, Ohtani is an outstanding pitcher as well, who made his pitching debut for the Dodgers on Monday, June 16 at Chavez Ravine.
Having not taken the mound since August 23, 2023, as a Los Angeles Angel, he has been recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Ohtani pitched only an inning against division foe, the San Diego Padres. It was a mixed bag.
Why only one inning you ask? Since Shohei is a two-way player, there is virtually no other player, except Babe Ruth to compare him to. A pitcher does extensive rehab, conditioning, grueling workouts, pitching sessions, not to mention a few rehab appearances for the Triple A Oklahoma City Comets before coming back.
That wasn’t going to ever be feasible in Ohtani’s position. Compound it with multiple injuries to the Dodgers pitching staff.
So, Ohtani decided to return to the mound to help the depleted Dodgers. His return will be closely guarded by Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts.
The raucous 50,000 in attendance were pleased with his brief outing, the team will increase his workload in due time. The first pitch was such a Big Deal ESPN broke in live to air Ohtani’s return to the mound.
Not surprising, Ohtani seemed to be the only human disappointed with his performance.
He threw one inning, as expected, and gave up one run on a sacrifice fly, requiring 28 pitches to record the game’s first three outs. Later, he went 2-for-4 as the designated hitter helping out his own cause, striking out twice but also driving in a couple of runs.
His tenth pitch Monday night clocked 100.2 mph. His 17th came in at 99.9 mph. It triggered excitement, but, also, to the members of the Los Angeles Dodgers who have vowed to be careful with his return to pitching, some caution.
“Not quite happy with the results overall,” Ohtani said through an interpreter, “but I think the biggest takeaway for me is that I feel good enough to be able to go out for my next outing.”
Ohtani, 30, functioned as a transformative two-way player from 2021 to 2023. On the mound, he posted a 2.84 ERA with 542 strikeouts and 143 walks in 428⅓ innings.
Unfortunately, Ohtani was diagnosed with a second tear in his ulnar collateral ligament after a start on Aug. 23, 2023, and underwent surgery a month later.
The plan is for Ohtani to take the mound every six to eight days and add at least an inning each time until he’s built up to act like more of a traditional starting pitcher.
It’s only June and the Dodgers are always thinking about October.
