Shohei Ohtani homers in first dwell batting observe with Dodgers

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Shohei Ohtani hit a towering house run in his first batting observe towards dwell pitching since he underwent reconstructive elbow surgical procedure — one other step towards him taking part in within the Los Angeles Dodgers’ season-opening sequence towards the San Diego Padres in Seoul.

Dealing with Dodgers reliever J.P. Feyereisen on Monday, Ohtani unloaded on a fastball and despatched it over the right-center-field fence. The immense crowd on the Dodgers’ Camelback Ranch facility — sometimes the most important within the Cactus League, however even greater with the $1 billion-plus the Dodgers spent to signal Ohtani and right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto — was there largely for Ohtani.

Ohtani first confronted Dodgers right-hander Ryan Brasier after which right-hander Blake Treinen, towards whom he fouled a ball off his foot and howled in ache. He recovered in loads of time for the at-bat towards Feyereisen. Whereas he had astounded teammates along with his energy in common batting observe classes, dwell BP is the closest facsimile to sport situations.

“When he hit it, I am like, oh, he is Shohei, so he is bought energy,” Feyereisen mentioned. “Then I rotated, I am like, nicely, there’s one other one. So it was good. It was enjoyable to see. And clearly he appears like he is able to go.

“I get that he is bought this huge following. He is 700 million [dollars]. However he is our teammate as nicely. … When he steps within the field, you simply bought to go and assault him, and clearly he attacked me.”

Whereas Ohtani is not going to play within the Dodgers’ spring opener Thursday towards San Diego, he is anticipated to take part in video games earlier than the groups fly to Korea for his or her two-game sequence March 20-21.