Dodgers 6, Padres 3: Shohei Ohtani returns to the mound & tallies 2 RBI to start series with a win

Chad Moriyama 06/16/2025 Game Recaps Leave A Comment

While today marked the start of another big series, and a four-game one at that, all of it took backseat to Shohei Ohtani‘s return to the mound for the first time since August of 2023. The hype was understandable, though a bit amusing since this is effectively part of his rehab.

Dodgers State Media is saying it, so it's fine to joke about, lol.

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— Chad Moriyama (@chadmoriyama.bsky.social) June 16, 2025 at 4:01 PM

As you’ll find out soon, Ohtani looked sharp but gave up a questionably earned run to the Padres, and fortunately it didn’t matter much as the Dodgers put up a crooked number in the middle innings — partially behind Ohtani’s bat — to power them to a 6-3 victory.

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Obviously, the game started with Shohei on the bump, and Fernando Tatis Jr. worked a 3-2 count before blooping a 74 MPH single into center and advancing to second on a yanked wild pitch. Luis Arraez then lined another well-placed single to center to corner the runners with nobody out.

At that point, Ohtani got Manny Machado down 1-2 in the count and seemed to get a swing for a strikeout, but the first-base umpire decided otherwise.

No swing.

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— Chad Moriyama (@chadmoriyama.bsky.social) June 16, 2025 at 4:19 PM

So instead, Machado flied out to center for a sacrifice fly despite Andy Pages making things exciting at the plate. 1-0 Padres.

No problems from there for Shohei, as he got a softly-hit groundout from Gavin Sheets on a nice play from Tommy Edman and Freddie Freeman, then got another soft grounder from Xander Bogaerts, which ended the inning thanks to a running play from Max Muncy.

Despite the run, it was an extremely promising return for Shohei, as the stuff looked great and there was a bit of adversity that will help determine how far along in his rehab he really is when he wakes up tomorrow.

Playing second fiddle for the night was Dylan Cease, and he was none too happy about it, or at least that’s what his pitching told us. He struck out the first five batters he faced in the game and got a weak comebacker to complete two perfect.

To start the 3rd, Pages drilled a 100 MPH fastball that was dotted on the black the other way for a double…

…and later in the inning it was Ohtani getting himself off the hook with a two-out double to score Pages and tie the game at 1-1.

Tie didn’t last long, unfortunately.

For the rest of the quasi-pen game, it was Anthony Banda in the 2nd due to a run of lefties, and he started with two strikeouts before issuing a walk. That brought in bulk guy Ben Casparius, who got the final out of the inning and then got a clean 3rd as well, partially thanks to this nice play from Edman.

As mentioned with regards to the tie, the 4th immediately found mess as Casparius issued a “walk” to Sheets on a questionable call.

That hurt when Bogaerts immediately doubled to give the Padres a 2-1 lead, especially since Casparius got the next three batters to get him out of the frame.

Fortunately, the Dodgers then put up a massive rally against Cease in their half of the 4th. After a lineout to start, Teoscar Hernandez reached on an infield single, and Will Smith doubled to put a pair in scoring position. Muncy singled to score both Teoscar and Dills (making it 3-2), and Pages got hit by a pitch (and had a bit of a staring contest with Cease) to put a pair on again.

Don’t think he hit Pages on purpose, unless they actually verbalized displeasure with him allegedly trying to steal signs earlier in the game.

Either way, this was funny.

After a strikeout for two down, the assembly line started, as Edman singled to score Muncy, Ohtani singled to score pages, and Mookie Betts singled to score Edman to make it a five-spot for a 6-2 lead all of a sudden.

Back to Casparius, he cruised to a seven-pitch frame in the 5th, but gave up a solo homer to Machado to start the 6th to make it 6-3.

He also gave up a double next before getting an out, his last of the game, as Dave Roberts turned to Alex Vesia to get the final two outs of the 6th. Michael Kopech then entered for the 7th, and he only gave up a two-out single.

Tanner Scott followed and continued his run of absolute dominance, striking out a batter en route to a seven-pitch inning.

Oh right, the offense of the Dodgers. Well, they basically shut it down at the halfway point. Cease was done after a scoreless 5th, and then they didn’t score in the last three chances they got against the pen.

That led to Kirby Yates for a save with a three-run lead, which he thankfully managed to lock down without drama.

Good start to the series.

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NL WestRecordGB
Dodgers44-29–
Giants41-312.5
Padres39-324.0

The series will continue tomorrow on TBS at 4:10 PM HT/7:10 PM PT/10:10 PM ET, and it’ll be some kind of pen game (maybe with Matt Sauer being the bulk guy?) for the Dodgers against Randy Vasquez.

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