LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shohei Ohtani allowed an early run in his pitching debut for the Los Angeles Dodgers, but quickly made up for it with two clutch hits and a pair of RBIs in a 6-3 victory over the San Diego Padres on Monday night.
The two-way superstar averaged 96.8 mph on nine fastballs and threw 28 pitches in the first inning, 21 months after right elbow surgery. It was his first outing since August 2023 with the Angels.
Manny Machado’s sacrifice fly against Ohtani drove in the Padres’ first run.
Ohtani's RBI double with two outs in the third tied the score at 1. He added another two-out hit, a run-scoring single during the Dodgers' five-run fourth, when they took a 6-2 lead. He also struck out twice and walked.
Anthony Banda replaced Ohtani on the mound in the second, and Ben Casparius (5-1) got the win with 3 2/3 innings of relief. Kirby Yates worked a perfect ninth for his second save.
Padres starter Dylan Cease (2-6) retired his first six batters, including five straight strikeouts. Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman went down swinging in order in the first.
Cease gave up six runs and eight hits in five innings and struck out nine.
San Diego took a 2-1 lead on Xander Bogaerts' RBI double in the fourth.
The Dodgers got to Cease in the bottom of the inning. Max Muncy, Tommy Edman, Ohtani and Betts sprayed RBI singles to all parts of the field.
Machado hit a leadoff homer in the sixth.
