WILL OHTANI STILL DOMINATE AS A PITCHER? ANOTHER FLASHPOINT IS UPON HIM
He hit 100.2 mph in his first start as a Dodger, but simply watching him throw the ball and then drive in two runs in a 6-3 victory, we are reminded that he’s bigger than Babe Ruth as a two-way threat
Our brains continue to microwave when Shohei Ohtani pitches a baseball. This is a thrill unlike any aftershock in sports, because the movement of his arm at 100 miles an hour contradicts the art of slugging and running. He should not shut out an opponent, hit three home runs and steal four bases. It’s beyond ethereal.
The surge doesn’t rage until he returns to the dugout. He’ll put down his glove, walk into an on-deck circle as the leadoff hitter, swing a bat and face a man in a deep melt — who knows the other pitcher happened to hit 54 home runs and steal 59 bases last year. That is when we realize Ohtani is bigger than Babe Ruth, wielding two-way threats 100 years later, when the sport is smarter and less drunken and more skillful.
That happened at 7:10 p.m. Monday. In his first pitching performance for the Dodgers, who pay him $700 million in deferred amounts, Ohtani allowed one run to the San Diego Padres and stepped in at home plate, where 50,000 people at Dodger Stadium greeted him like a divine being. On the same day, the longtime interpreter who stole nearly $17 million from him — Ippei Mizuhara, amid gambling chaos — was in custody at a federal correctional institution in Pennsylvania. Ohtani was front and center with his friend as he bet 19,000 times over a two-year period. Because sports gambling is illegal in California, any connection in protecting Mizuhara would bring trouble to Ohtani.
No one cared. He was back as a double-edged performer 21 months after a second major surgery on his right elbow, 663 days later. They raved that he tied the game with a double in the third inning, after throwing 28 pitches — 16 for strikes — and hitting 100.2 mph on the meter. He was gone after an inning, as the team prepares to lift him into an ace role. As a designated hitter, Ohtani also drove in another run in a 6-3 victory.
“To see him come into the dugout from the 'pen, all that stuff. I was kind of fanboying for like half an inning,” manager Dave Roberts said.
“Seeing him come off the mound and go into the dugout, I don’t know. It kind of hit a little different seeing it from our side,” Max Muncy said. “He never stops surprising me. We’ll see how it progresses for him.”
From this point on, the team is trying to keep him healthy while making sure his bat — which leads the National League with 25 homers — remains ferocious. Ohtani said he was nervous — “Definitely a little bit more than when I was solely a position player,” he said. He also wasn’t fond of allowing an immediate run, saying through interpreter Will Ireton, “Not quite happy with the results overall, but I think the biggest takeaway for me is that I feel good enough to be able to go out for my next outing.”
Mostly, he was thrilled that 14 pitches crashed 98 mph. “I did hit 100 today, so I want to see first where my body feels and how it reacts,” Ohtani said. “But the expectation is for me to go once a week, hopefully to be able to go a little longer every time I'm out there so that the bullpen won't be so taxed.”
He remains in heaven, a champion after his first season with the Dodgers. But the ability to pitch and hit has turned him into a mythical figure in America and Asia, with thousands of fans wearing his No. 17 jersey. I’m just really grateful, reflecting back on all the support that I received from the doctors that operated on me, the support staff, the team and everyone who supported me along the way," Ohtani said. “I’m just grateful that, aside from the results, to be able to show and be grateful for the moment I had today.”
The Dodgers would love to put him on cruise control until the playoffs. Realistically, his golden stuff is required soon. The pitching staff is bombarded by injuries, and the National League is filled with contenders. They need his bat. They need his arm.
“To take this on — the physical toll, talent-wise, the psychology of it — this is a big undertaking,” Roberts said. “As people say, he’s a unicorn. He loves the challenge. And he just has a way of kind of focusing on whatever task is at hand. He enjoys that process of it. I don’t think he’s just kind of jovial about being a two-way player. I think he just really takes pride in being really good at it, too.”
“This is such a unique scenario,” general manager Brandon Gomes said. “We were making sure we’re not doing anything to put the offensive side in jeopardy. I think that's true of anybody who's going out and stepping on the mound. But he's gone through this whole rehab process and he feels good and this is the next step in the progression. We signed him to be a two-way player, he's very much of the mindset that he wants to do that for a very long time. So we feel like we're ready to take that step.”
Nothing is more godlike than watching him walk from the mound and grab a bat. That counteracts everything we have thought about the game. “He didn’t even get a drink of water,” Muncy said. “Just put his helmet on, went right to the batter’s box. That’s really hard to do.”
Good luck finding tickets. In a matter of hours, the average price skyrocketed from $129 to $300. Once Ohtani is listed as a starting pitcher, entering the ballpark will be impossible. He is an all-time force when he swings and runs.
Watching him pitch makes you think about, well, life.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.