LOS ANGELES — For the Dodger fans who couldn’t believe their eyes the first time, we had a second unicorn sighting at the ballpark Sunday afternoon.
I witnessed it before the Dodgers’ woke-up-with-a-jolt 13-7 victory over the Washington Nationals, hundreds of fans coaxing the mythical two-way ballplayer back into action with their cell phones, on and recording from the stands near the left-field bullpen.
“It’s a crazy thing that he’s playing for the team I support,” said Maximus Aldaz, a 24-year-old fan who drove down from Clovis to catch Shohei Ohtani’s second start – and second inning of work – as a Dodger.
“Seeing him doing it in an Angels jersey was crazy enough – made me a fan of his,” Aldaz said. “But seeing him in our jersey is like, ‘Wow.’”
This glimpse lasted 18 first-inning pitches, 12 of them strikes, the fastest 98.8 mph, resulting in two strikeouts and just one baserunner, put aboard by an error. And none of the Nationals’ runs. Ohtani’s fastball had life, his sweepers were strikes, he mixed speeds and locations effectively. “Looked good,” Dalton Rushing, the Dodgers’ rookie catcher, said. “Explosive.”
This sighting was, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “considerably better” than Ohtani’s first first inning last week, progress after his return to pitching 21 months after a second elbow surgery and 22 months after his last start with the Angels.
On June 16, Ohtani hit 100.2 mph and threw 28 pitches and gave up one run in a 6-3 victory over the San Diego Padres – and he went 2 for 4 with two RBIs. The only big leaguer today doing it like a Little Leaguer; the team’s best player hitting and pitching, doing it all.
After starting the game Sunday and he quick-changed – after a sticky substance check – into his layers of protective hitting gear to bat as the Dodgers’ DH and leadoff hitter a couple minutes later. He finished 2 for 4 at the plate Sunday, drawing a walk and driving in five runs, three on a bases-clearing triple in the Dodgers’ seven-run seventh inning. And he followed up with a two-run home run – his 26th this season – to center field in the eighth.
“Wow” stuff, for real.
Rushing can confirm: “He’s a unicorn, he does it all. And on top of obviously his physical capabilities, he’s a really good teammate.”
Remember Ohtani’s promise when he announced he was taking his talents up the freeway from Anaheim to L.A. to join the Dodgers?
“I pledge to always do what’s best for the team,” he wrote. “And always continue to give it my all to be the best version of myself.”
That version contains multitudes.
It’s important to remember, as Ohtani spelled it out in that Dec. 9, 2023 Instagram post – “until the last day of my playing career, I want to continue to strive forward” – that being so multidimensional requires striving.
It takes work, like the time Ohtani said he spent with the Dodgers hitting coaches since his last start, attuned especially to the way his body is moving mid-pitch, a focus that led to him feeling “a lot better this time,” the 30-year-old Japanese superstar said.
And a work in progress hits differently with these Dodgers, the reigning World Series champions who are so loaded that despite having nine players currently on the injured list, they improved to 48-31 on Sunday.
The blue regular-season machine just chugs along so dependably. So even when rivals raise the temperature and real world issues rush the gates and Ohtani starts not just pitching but hitting like a pitcher – he was 2 for 19 without an extra-base hit or a run scored in the five games before Sunday’s – the Dodgers go out and win more than they lose.
They’re not counting on Ohtani to save them any time soon, and Ohtani isn’t planning to use his arm to save the day tomorrow. It’s the tale of the caution tape, grace and patience that the Dodgers can afford that most clubs can not.
“It’s going to be a gradual process,” Ohtani said postgame, a sizable scrum of reporters leaning in to hear every word of Will Ireton’s translation. “I want to see improvements with the quality of the pitches that I’m throwing and then also increasing the amount of pitches, so its going to be gradual.”
“He’s understanding where he’s at and where we’re at,” Roberts added. “And appreciating the fact that as time goes on, we’ll get to a certain point – but there’s no point to rushing it right now.”
But there’s plenty of point in savoring the slow build, the slow burn, the stacking of “building blocks,” as Roberts called the process of taking at-bats and pitching an “inning here and an inning there.” The Dodgers’ mythological methodology at work.
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