Shohei Ohtani’s Return to the Mound with the Dodgers

Shohei Ohtani seemed to have a bit of rust during his pitching debut for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the San Diego Padres on Monday night. In the only inning he played, he gave up one run with two hits, throwing 28 pitches, which was actually the second most for Dodgers pitchers in the game.

This outing marked a significant step for Ohtani, who had been sidelined from pitching for nearly 21 months due to an elbow injury. He managed to hit a fastball at 100.2 mph, which is—well, that’s pretty impressive.

“I was aiming to sit around 95-96,” Ohtani mentioned via a translator after the Dodgers secured a 6-3 win.

He acknowledged feeling a bit more anxious stepping out on the mound again and had a mixed night at the plate, going 2-for-4 with two RBIs, a couple of walks, and two strikeouts.

However, Ohtani was optimistic about getting back into the groove. “I hit 100 today, so I’ll see how my body feels and reacts,” he said. “I plan to pitch once a week, and hopefully, I can extend each outing a bit as we go.”

Max Muncy, his teammate, had some encouraging words. He felt Ohtani looked fantastic, even though he admitted that without recent game experience, the command might still be a work in progress. “Things looked electric, but that’s to be expected after such a long layoff,” Muncy observed.

The Dodgers improved their record to 44-29 with this victory, while the Padres fell to 39-32.