NEW YORK — At 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Shohei Ohtani climbed a big league hill for the first time in 614 days.
It wasn’t in front of a sold-out crowd. The Citi Field gates hadn’t even opened. There were no fielders. The catcher called balls and strikes. His opponents were a pair of rookie teammates and a member of the Dodgers coaching staff who hadn’t faced professional pitching in nine years.
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Officially, it was just a live batting practice session, a low-stakes environment for a recovering pitcher to ease back into competition. But because it was Ohtani, the session morphed into a can’t-miss event. That it was the three-time MVP’s first time pitching against hitters since his second career reconstructive elbow surgery, only added to the anticipation.
“You know, I’ve gotten so used to seeing him as a hitter,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters afterward. “And so to see him on the mound just solely as a pitcher, it was different. And certainly exciting for all of us.”
As Ohtani readied to throw, a gaggle of his teammates assembled together behind a protective net set up near home plate. Dozens more Dodger players, coaches and team employees watched from the dirt track in foul territory down the third-base line. Across the diamond, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza and a handful of his players followed along from the home dugout. Media members, television cameras and photographers dotted the otherwise empty stands, jostling for the best possible view of the show.
Only with Ohtani, does the mundane feel so momentous.
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“It was pretty cool,” Dodgers rookie catcher Dalton Rushing, who struck out in his one at-bat against Ohtani, opined afterward. “You come out here and you basically have the whole clubhouse sitting here watching him off the mound. It’s been a big topic around baseball. Everyone wants to see his first live BP. Glad I could give the people what they wanted to see.”
Ohtani threw 22 pitches across five different at-bats. The velocity clocked in at 94-95 miles per hour, although it reached as high as 97, according to pitching coach Mark Prior. Ohtani called upon his entire arsenal: fastball, sinker, cutter, sweeper, splitter. Rookie infielder Hyeseong Kim made solid contact twice, including a firm comebacker into Ohtani’s glove on the first plate appearance. Rushing received just one at-bat, a strikeout during which he swung through a dastardly breaking ball.
“The stuff is there,” Prior ensured.
Dodgers game-planning coach JT Watkins also took two at-bats adding a touch of levity. Since Ohtani wasn’t comfortable facing any of his right-handed hitting teammates at this stage, Watkins, who played minor league ball with the Red Sox, volunteered to stand in. He punched out in his first at-bat, before drawing a walk in his second, much to the delight of the Dodgers assembled.
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Through it all, Ohtani looked notably at ease. So often the Japanese superstar attacks his craft with an unmistakable seriousness, a fierce intensity. And while he took a deep breath before each pitch, re-calibrating his focus, Ohtani was particularly expressive between his offerings. Happy, borderline giddy, about being back on a mound.
Ohtani’s timetable for return to mound remains unclear
Despite this milestone moment, the path forward, for this singular force, remains murky. Asked what would happen next, Prior was understandably vague.
“He’s gonna DH tonight, and we’re gonna go from there,” Prior said. “And then he’s gonna play tomorrow. He’s gonna DH tomorrow, and we’ll go from there, you know?”
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The stressors and hurdles Ohtani faces in his rehab process are unlike any other player in MLB history. Nobody else has ever attempted to return from elbow surgery while simultaneously providing elite production as a hitter. Ohtani reminded everyone of that outrageous reality a few hours after his bullpen session, when he cranked the second pitch of the evening 411 feet for an upper deck moonshot off Mets starter Kodai Senga. It was the Dodgers’ lone run in Sunday’s 3-1 defeat.
The reigning MVP is hitting .295/.388/.638 with 18 home runs and 11 steals. Last season, his first as a full-time DH, Ohtani became the first player to blast at least 50 homers and steal at least 50 bags. For a Dodgers team operating with thinner margins than expected, Ohtani’s pitching timetable has taken on added importance. But while his pitching would be a welcome boon for a staff depleted by injury, his offense is downright indispensable.
The Dodgers have slow-played Ohtani’s return to pitching, in large part, because they need him to continue hitting. This baseball behemoth has and can withstand a lot; a sustained period without one of the game’s most dynamic bats would be a stress test they’d rather avoid.
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That’s what makes the on-mound comeback precarious. The fourth pitch he threw on Sunday was a firm comebacker off Kim’s bat that Ohtani coolly snared. It wasn’t hit hard enough to be described as dangerous, but the suddenness of the play served as a subtle reminder: The road ahead carries real risk.
But only Ohtani could even dare to walk it.
