Whose watching Ohtani's one inning tonight?
 

Count me in. Amazing story for baseball. He's going to just pitch one inning tonight and ramp up slowly.

Knowing this guy he might strike out the side.

I'll be watching! I try to catch as many of Ohtani's games as I can.

I know he gave up a run, but man he’s got great stuff!
Hit 100mph and his movement was crazy.
Ump cost him by blowing the check swing call.

Rusty, but light contact and bad umpiring certainly didn't help. Ump was all over the place.

First, I’m a huge Ohtani fan, and I completely understand the excitement about him pitching. But I think it will eventually cause unfortunate injuries, taking the bat out of his hands. I hope I’m wrong, but pitching only adds more chances for injuries.

While, as a Dodger fan, that's obviously a concern. His history has shown that his pitching injuries don't really hamper his playing time or effectiveness at DH. Since he never has to play the field he never has to throw so oftentimes he can play through the pitching injury.

I definitely hope I’m wrong. He is such an amazing hitter.

I love Ohtani. He's such a man. He could have taken the easier way out and open up his pitching against the Nationals, Rockies or the White Sox. But he mans up and takes on the top of the order of the Padres.

Ohtani is an old school competitor. He doesn't preen or prance or talk shit. He gets beat up a bit in his first inning and owns it.

And then he goes out and drives in the tying run to make up for his underperformance (even though it is a rehab start basically).

I tip my cap to him, even as a Mets fan. I can see why the Dodgers love him in the clubhouse. If you have a guy like Ohtani in there, you know that all the divos (male divas) like Rafael Devers just don't make it.

Ohtani’s swing is the smoothest I’ve ever seen (early years Griffey Jr and maybe short peak Strawberry come to mind too). A home run just looks inevitable when he reads the ball and swings through it. Judge is an equally impressive hitter but he looks a little more violent when he crushes one.

Nice to see that Strawberry swing get some love. It looked like he wasn't even trying and the ball flew. For my money the easiest swing I've ever seen. I think of it as the exact opposite of Reggie Jackson's swing which was violent and seemed out of control.

Gary Sheffield was another guy with a violent swing but at the same time there was something beautiful about it.

The only thing more entertaining than a Reggie home run was a Reggie strikeout. :D

How many times did Reggie come right out of his helmet, on a swing and a miss? Sometimes he’d lose a helmet and hit a HR in the same at bat.

He'd corkscrew himself completely into the ground on a particularly good whiff.

https://scontent.fabe1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...3Q&oe=687A5B60

You guys see Ohtani's reaction to getting drilled high on a 3-0 fastball that got Suarez ejected? The commentators were right to be impressed.

Ohtani is probably thinking, "Sure, you can hit me, but I've got 3 MVPs and a ring. What do you have, beaatcch?" Or maybe he's thinking, "That was stupid, because I'm going to be on the mound against you in August, and I'm going to break Tatis's hand."

But actually, he's probably not thinking any of those things, which is why he is a bad bad man.

How many times are they allowed to hit this guy - I just seen him get hit in the leg the day before - what happened ? Did they hit Tatis again ?

Never mind I read up on it , apparently the Dodgers have hit Tatis three times in seven games - managers doing the Dusty Baker Tony La Russa thing

Yeah, and it's Ohtani who has shown he's the adult in the room.

Here's the video:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LyoqcIorTE8

- Turned a train wreck into an a Admirable moment , lol one guy had his leg up over the rail

That one guy being Kershaw, who's normally pretty calm and level-headed. That's an indicator of how bad things had gotten in the series that he was the first one headed to the field.

Culturally, people probably assume Ohtani won't fight. But that dude is 6'4 250 (forget 210, his listed weight -- Bryce Harper is 210, and Ohtani is much bigger than Bryce Harper). He also owns the vertical jump record for both the Angels and the Dodgers and squats 500 lbs for reps. He's all smiles, but who on the Padres really wants to fight him.

I wish he would just stick to hitting/fielding. I too hope I am wrong, but he’s just 1 pitch away from being forgotten about.

Just an opinion but I think batting him lead off for a few extra plate appearances is killing the Dodgers ,
Five RBIs yesterday but still not in the top 20. how does a guy with 26 home runs have only 49 RBIs with Betts and Freeman as teammates ?
130 RBIs last year and a couple guys that can score 120 runs - all will struggle to reach the 100 mark this year.
Yes leads the league in plate appearances but guaranteed at least one plate appearance Every game with the bases empty.
Edit : perhaps “ killing the Dodgers“ Is a bit strong worded, they are in the first place ��

Didn't he mostly lead off in 2024 when he got to 130 RBIs? If so, then it would seem to indicate that either he's not hitting as well with RISP or he's not getting as many opportunities with RISP which would point to the bottom of the order not getting on base as much. Either way, the fact that he had 130 RBIs from the lead off spot in 2024 seems to indicate batting him there isn't the main reason for his lower RBI total so far this year.

I didn't see his inning yesterday, but no hits and 2 strikeouts with one runner reaching on an error. I haven't read anything about the Dodgers plans to ramp him up on the mound. Have they said when they will let him go longer in outings?

I’m guessing there are mathematicians that have crunched numbers on where to bat him. Judge is a massive power hitting and bats second most nights. Always seemed weird to me but maybe having best power hitters bat third or fourth is becoming outdated.

Of course I could be totally wrong , Betts is a fine base runner,
Freemans a doubles machine - put them in front of Ohtani that looks like a bunch of runs to me - And they both be seeing more hittable pitches.
It’s always fun to pretend I’m smarter than a major league manager

I took a quick look at Ohtani's stats in 2024 and in 2025, season to date. So far this year, he's hitting .240 with OPS of .824 with RISP, compared with .283 and an OPS of .868 last year. So he isn't quite as good with runners in scoring position this year.

But he's also only had 50 ABs with RISP this season so far, which is roughly 30% less than what he probably had last year (he had 145 ABs with RISP for the full season last year).

So I think it is a combination of both issues -- he's less efficient himself, and the bottom of the order hasn't been getting on base as much.

Another anomaly is that Ohtani scored 134 runs last year, but is on pace this year to score 154. So someone is knocking him in.

It's really a testament to the Dodgers lineup, he had that many RBI's.

Ohtani had 177 Plate appearances with RISP. He led off 90 games last year, and batted 2nd for 69 games.

Judge batted 3rd, all year last year, and only had 178 Plate appearance with RISP.

With Soto gone, they have Judge moving up to the #2 spot, about half the games this year.

By the way, Judge is a career .302 AVG, .449 OBP, with Runners in scoring position.

Ohtani, for his career is not quite at that level, but pretty close.

I'd have Ohtani batting 1 or 2 in the order, anytime possible, just to take advantage of his base-running. Ultimately, you want OBP machines like Ohtani and Judge to get as many at bats as possible. Runs are just as important as RBI's.

I always enjoy stats at mid season (81 games)
This is gonna knock my “ batting Ohtani first is bad ” theory
But thought it was interesting enough to share .

Dodgers rbis:
Pages 54
Hernandez 53
Muncy 51
Ohtani 51
Smith 42
Freeman 41
Betts 39
Edman 38
Four on pace 100+ RBIs - or seven more than 75 RBIs

Slightly OT but Kershaw has been dealing his last couple outings. Only allowed 2 fly balls today and only took 69 pitches to complete 6 innings. His last start was very efficient too, and he's been using the curve as his strikeout pitch which is nice to see again.

He should be batting 3rd or 4th, and should not be allowed anywhere near a pitching mound. Batting him leadoff is surely costing the team runs.

He isn't getting THAT many extra plate appearances batting 1st as opposed to 3rd. Here is a Fangraphs analysis.
https://fantasy.fangraphs.com/buying...y-lineup-spot/

I think Mark Walter is playing it right. Ohtani wants to pitch. The fan base wants to see him pitch. He far exceeded expectations in his first year as a Dodger. Won the ring, etc. I am in Asia most of the year -- there is only one MLB baseball player that the average person here can name, and it is Ohtani. Lotta people here who buy Dodgers gear, that's all I'm saying.

Ohtani can do whatever he wants until the Dodgers start to lose badly, which hasn't happened yet. I thought he was having an off year, but then I took a look at his stats. That guy might win MVP again this year.