Padres @ Dodgers June 16, 2025: Shohei Ohtani takes the mound for the first time as a Dodger

Normally I’d post a mini recap of last night’s game, but today’s the day Shohei Ohtani takes the mound at Dodger Stadium for the first time in his career. He never started in LA as an Angel, and tonight he makes his long-awaited debut on the mound.

	7:10 P.M.		Los Angeles
RF	Tatis Jr.	DH	Ohtani (L)
1B	Arraez (L)	SS	Betts
3B	Machado	1B	Freeman (L)
LF	Sheets (L)	RF	T. Hernández
SS	Bogaerts	C	Smith
2B	Cronenworth (L)	3B	Muncy (L)
DH	Brooks (L)	CF	Pages
CF	Wade (L)	LF	Conforto (L)
C	Maldonado	2B	Edman (S)
P	Cease (R)	P	Ohtani (R)

Ohtani is obviously the headliner, but don’t expect him to stay on the hill too long. He’s really serving as the opener of a bullpen game and most of the reports last night said he’d probably just throw the first inning. Dustin wrote a primer on what to expect out of Ohtani on the hill back in February and Chad wrote about the news last night, so read those because I had to move my therapy to today and don’t have time to deep dive on him.

As far as the top three in the Padre lineup go, Fernando Tatis Jr. is 0-for-3 with a strikeout against Ohtani, Luis Arraez is 2-for-6 and Manny Machado is 2-for-2 with a walk (all four hits were singles). After Ohtani, the expectation is that Ben Casparius will assume the bulk role of this bullpen game. Casparius started Wednesday in San Diego and allowed a run and three hits in four solid innings. All the damage came in the second, when Casparius allowed three singles and two walks including a bases-loaded walk for the one run. He nearly allowed a second run on one of the singles, but Andy Pages threw Gavin Sheets out at home.

The Padres dropped two of three last week against the Dodgers, and followed that up by losing two of three in Arizona over the weekend. Arizona won the first game pretty comfortably and pulled off a huge comeback in the second game, scoring five in the ninth of Robert Suarez for an 8-7 walk off win. The Padres bounced back with an 8-2 win yesterday to salvage the series and remain three games back of LA entering this four-game set.

Dylan Cease gets the ball for the Padres, facing the Dodgers for the second consecutive outing. I wrote that thread too, lets see how smart I am.

Dylan Cease gets the ball for the Padres and is having a rough contract year. His ERA hasn’t been under 3.38 yet this season, and the only time it was under 4.50 was after his second start of the season. He’s currently at a 4.72 despite a 3.20 FIP and a top-10 strikeout rate among qualified starters (29.1 percent). He’s only pitched past the fifth inning in four of his 13 starts after doing so in 23 of his 33 starts last season.

Well, Cease absolutely dominated the Dodgers. He allowed three single over seven shutout innings and struck out a season-high 11 batters. He did issue a season-high five walks, but the Dodgers looked pretty lifeless at the plate and Matt Sauer set a new standard in terms of wearing it, allowing nine runs in 4 1/3 innings. It was the infamous Enrique Hernandez pitching in the sixth inning controversy, but did set the Dodgers up nicely for the series win.

The Dodgers roll out a very similar lineup as they did last week against Cease. Will Smith and Teoscar Hernandez flip flop in the order, and Tommy Edman starts at second instead of Hyeseong Kim, who started last week.

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The first returns for All-Star voting came in today, and the Dodgers have three players leading their positions in the NL.

The first ballot update for the All-Star Game is here! Keep voting 5x each day to send the Boys in Blue to Atlanta.

?: https://t.co/SSqaZ7aq1V pic.twitter.com/XY0KZvmP79

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) June 16, 2025

Smith, Freddie Freeman and Ohtani are currently leading NL vote getters at their positions and Teo would be a starter as the third-leading outfield vote-getter. Edman, Max Muncy and Mookie Betts are each second at their respective positions.

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First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PT and will be shown on SportsNet LA and MLB Network.