Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani Reacts to 3rd Pitching Start of Season

Although the Los Angeles Dodgers didn't beat the Kansas City Royals on Saturday, their designated hitter — who leads the National League in home runs — threw a 101.7 mph fastball.

Shohei Ohtani continued to baffle Royals hitters and baseball fans alike, tossing a pair of scoreless innings in his third start on the mound in a Dodgers uniform. The three-time MVP spoke after the game about what it was like to pitch in his best start of the season so far.

“Overall, I was happy with the fact that I was able to attack the zone,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “There’s some little things that I still need to work on. But overall, pretty happy.”

One would hope that Ohtani was happy to hurl his fastest pitch of his MLB career, along with two productive innings, a strikeout, and lowering his ERA to 2.25 across four innings.

“It’s nice to be able to hit that velo and see how my body reacts,” he said.

As for a longer-term view of his road to fully ramping up Ohtani spoke on not just currently feeling good with his recovery, but compared things to coming back after his first Tommy John surgery.

“I felt pretty good about being able to come back and pitch well — especially considering, [compared to] when I first had the surgery, the second time through it was a lot better in terms of recovery,” Ohtani said. “Talking to the doctor, he was very confident that I would be able to come back in full form.”

Ohtani has yet to pitch more than 28 pitches or over two innings in his three brief starts in 2025, but there is so much more left for the two-way superstar to achieve on the mound.

The reasoning that his progression back to pitching has been so slow is that the team can't afford to lose his bat while he goes off to Triple-A for a rehab assignment.

Ohtani is currently hitting .291/.392/.641 with an OPS of 1.033. His absurd slugging percentage and OPS marks also lead the National League in addition to his home runs.

Although his excellence on the mound and in the batter's box is unmatched, and unheard of in this century, the best is still yet to come with the future Hall of Famer.