Shohei Ohtani, the most important baseball star on the planet, made his Los Angeles Dodgers debut on Tuesday. Manning DH and batting second in Dave Roberts’ lineup – wedged between Mookie Betts within the leadoff spot and Freddie Freeman within the three gap – Ohtani noticed recreation motion as a Dodger for the primary time of their Cactus League matchup with the White Sox at Camelback Ranch in Arizona.
Ohtani’s first two at-bats had been forgettable — he struck out trying in his first at-bat and grounded right into a double play his second time up — however after all the third time is a attraction. In his third at-bat Tuesday, Ohtani lifted a towering two-run dwelling run to the other discipline towards Chicago righty Dominic Leone. To the motion footage:
According to the Los Angeles Times, the ball traveled 377 ft and left Ohtani’s bat at 102 mph. The house run was Ohtani’s last at-bat of the day — it is typical for gamers to get solely two or three at-bats within the early days of spring coaching — and his upcoming schedule has not but been introduced. He might get Wednesday off earlier than returning to the lineup Thursday.
The 29-year-old Ohtani, usually a two-way celebrity, will probably be restricted to DH obligation this season as he recovers from elbow surgical procedure. By 2025, he ought to be again to hitting and pitching – a traditionally distinctive tandem of abilities that allowed him to win two American League MVP awards as a member of the Angels. That September elbow surgical procedure stored Ohtani out of the Dodgers’ first 4 spring-training video games and might imperil his standing for the season-opening Seoul Collection towards the Padres in Korea, which is scheduled for March 20-21. That, nonetheless, is a fluid scenario, and that Ohtani was certainly capable of be in Tuesday’s lineup is a promising step ahead from the cage work and stay at-bats that had constituted his spring thus far.
Ohtani is coming off a 2023 stroll yr for the Angels during which he batted .304/.412/.654 with an AL-best 44 dwelling runs and on the mound pitched 132 innings with a 3.14 ERA and 167 strikeouts. Earlier this winter, he inked a document $700 million free-agent contract with the Dodgers, albeit one that features heavy and unprecedented wage deferrals.
Ohtani joined a Dodgers workforce filled with stars, together with his countryman and new L.A. ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Throw within the Dodgers’ latest historical past of regular-season dominance and future of postseason appearances, and expectations are sky-high for 2024.
