You read that right, Shohei Ohtani will start tomorrow in the Dodgers' pitching debut against the Padres

The Dodgers' long-awaited day since signing a record-breaking contract is upon Shohei Ohtani, who will make his Dodgers debut tomorrow against the Padres and pitch at Pitcher's Hill. "The simulated combat training has completed its mission," Dave Roberts announced after today's 5-4 win over the Giants, "and he's ready to make his pitching debut." "

Shohei Ohtani hasn't built up his full starting fitness yet, but the Dodgers are confident he'll use it as a multi-inning opening pitcher. Roberts admits that he may only throw one game in the first game, but the team itself will be bullpen day tomorrow, and any contribution will be extra strength.

Ohtani's rehabilitation has accelerated recently: his first live pitch at Citi Field on May 26 and his first major league roof since August 24, 2023, 22 days later — just a month after surgery to repair his right ulnar collateral ligament (the second major surgery on his right elbow), plus offseason left shoulder surgery prompted Dodge to be extremely cautious.

Shohei Ohtani's status as a two-player player gives roster flexibility: it doesn't take up the 13-man pitcher slot, allowing the Dodgers to rotate six players and keep the cowpen at bay. "The atypical pre-emptive rehabilitation model led to this arrangement," Roberts explains, "and he was planning to play four more sims a week ago, but he was confident that the time had come." "

It was widely expected that the stars of Ohtani would return after the game, and it was not until last Tuesday that Roberts relented that the "probability of the stars being on the board before the game" was greater than zero after he made his third actual 44-ball shot in San Diego last Tuesday. Shohei Ohtani said through Will Ireton after his career 250 hit on Saturday: "The intensity of the previous fight was up to the level of the competition. "

Dodger's first season Ohtani created the "50 Boom 50 Pirates Club" and won the MVP unanimously three times, and this return of the complete body and the second knife flow has aroused super high expectations. Its 86 games in the major league have a starting self-blame rate of 3.01 and an ERA+ of 142, and even the actual combat training attracts teammates to watch, and opponents are also curious to snoop.

"I'm a baseball fan first and foremost," Roberts admits, "and tomorrow the Dodgers Stadium is going to go crazy." This grand occasion belongs to baseball, but also to Ohtani himself. "