LOS ANGELES — Pretty much every seat except those in the far reaches of the upper deck were filled.
In the lower bowl, almost everyone stood.
The first pitch from the mound was cheered. The first warmup pitch.
Shohei Ohtani pitching for the first time since before his September 2023 Tommy John surgery — and pitching for the first time with the Dodgers — made Dodger Stadium the center of the baseball universe and prompted notoriously tardy L.A. sports fans to show up early.
“They were watching the Show,” Manny Machado said. “Everyone was expecting this first outing. Everyone was ready for this. And it was pretty special.”
What happened later was far more impactful to this particular game, as the Dodgers flipped the lead by scoring five runs off Dylan Cease in the fourth inning en route to a 6-3 victory that left the Padres four games back in the National League West.
Ohtani had gotten back the run he allowed in the first inning with a third-inning double, and he drove in a run with a single in the fourth.
But it was what he did in the first inning that filled Dodger Stadium so early and perhaps altered what is possible for the Dodgers this season.
The crowd cheered thunderously when Padres lead-off batter Fernando Tatis Jr. swung through a 98 mph fastball and then groaned when he flared the next pitch into center field for a single.
There was a collective gasp when Ohtani yanked a pitch that sailed to the backstop, allowing Tatis to get to second base.
Things quieted after Luis Arraez singled to move Tatis to third. There was a brief eruption of noise for the close play at home that resulted in Tatis scoring on Machado’s sacrifice fly.
The giant ballpark was relatively still for most of the next two batters, as Ohtani’s pitch count soared and left-hander Anthony Banda warmed up in the bullpen.
Groundouts by Gavin Sheets and Xander Bogaerts ended Ohtani’s work on the mound after 28 pitches.
“I wasn’t going to push him past 30,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “So Bogaerts was going to be his last hitter.”
It was one inning.
“He’s still far from what he’s expected to do,” Machado said. “We’re not even going to take this into account. It’s just a small sample size. Looking forward to facing him down the road.”
Still, Ohtani hit 100 mph on a pitch to Luis Arraez and the mere fact he returned put the National League West on notice. The league’s best hitter is also a pitcher again, presumably working toward an actual start at some point this season.
It has been quite a couple days in the NL West.
On Sunday afternoon, a few hours before the Dodgers announced Ohtani would pitch, the news broke that the Giants had traded for Red Sox slugger Rafael Devers.
“Good competition,” Machado said. “It’s gonna be to the end. It’s definitely gonna be fun. This division just got better. It was good already and great already. It just got better. So it’s gonna be a fun ride.”
Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey pulled an A.J. Preller-type move.
Sunday’s trade sent a jolt through baseball that registered somewhere between the magnitude of last May’s acquisition of Luis Arraez and the 2022 blockbuster that brought Juan Soto to San Diego.
“Crazy, huh,” Bogaerts said before the game. “I don’t think anyone saw that coming.”
The Dodgers, who finished off a series win over the Giants on Sunday, had about the same reaction.
“It was crazy,” Dodgers second baseman Tommy Edman told reporters Sunday night. “You don’t expect a trade like that this time of year.”
Bogaerts was a teammate of Devers for six seasons, a span that included Boston’s 2018 World Series title, and he spent the first decade of his career in the highly competitive American League East.
“I don’t know if I can remember a trade like this,” Bogaerts said. “… That’s a powerful bat. He’s going to be a tough out. … He made them a lot better. Big-time player.”
Devers is batting .272 with a .905 OPS this season and is expected to fill in at third base for the injured Matt Chapman and then be the designated hitter for the Giants (41-31), who are in second place in NL West sandwiched between the Dodgers (44-29) and Padres (39-32).
Padres manager Mike Shildt’s reaction was predictable.
“Our focus is on the internal,” he said Monday afternoon. “Gonna be aware of what’s taking place in the division, but all we control is what the Padres do. But when you look up and you see the addition of Devers to a division rival, you go, ‘Yeah, they’re clearly trying.’ And trying means to be the best in this game. They’re investing in the now and the future, and that’s in their club and also the financial commitment it takes to compete at this level.”
The Devers trade is considered an outlier this year in terms of potential big-name acquisitions. He and the Red Sox had been feuding over what positions he was being asked to play and how those requests were handled.
Significant offensive help is not considered readily available.
The Padres have been on a quest for a right-handed hitter, preferably one that can play left field. They also have discussed catchers.
The trade market has been stagnant, somewhat paralyzed by the fact that so many teams believe they might have what it takes to make the postseason.
There are six American League teams within three games of a playoff spot. And four National League teams are within three games of the Padres, who sit in the NL’s sixth-and-final playoff position.
Their third loss in four games against the Dodgers this season (all in the past eight days) began as a back-and-forth affair.
They took a 2-1 lead in the fourth against Ben Casparius, the Dodgers’ third pitcher, when Sheets drew a one-out walk and scored on Bogaerts’ double that was misplayed by center fielder Andy Pages.
Cease had begun the game with five strikeouts and — even with Pages’ double leading off the third and Ohtani’s two-out double driving him in — gave no sign that he was headed toward disaster in the fourth.
The bottom of that inning began with Freddie Freeman lining out softly to Arraez. But three consecutive hits and then a hit batter followed before a strikeout and three more singles gave the Dodgers a 6-2 lead.
“They put the ball in play, and a lot of them found holes,” Cease said. “It’s an unfortunate part of baseball.”
Machado got the Padres to 6-3 with a lead-off home run in the sixth, and Sheets followed with a double. Casparius got Bogaerts on a lineout, the first out of the inning and the right-hander’s final out of the night.
Left-hander Alex Vesia came in and ended the inning by retiring Jake Cronenworth on a popout and striking out pinch-hitter Jose Iglesias.
Cease made it through five innings. Wandy Peralta took over and pitched into the seventh before leaving David Morgan with a runner on first and no outs. Morgan ended that inning and worked a scoreless eighth.
“We know that they have a good team,” Shildt said after the game. “We have a good team. They have star power. We have star power. … Whatever they have, they have. We show up and play our game, and we take our shot, and (we) feel pretty good about shaking hands in the ninth.”
Originally Published: June 16, 2025 at 9:56 PM PDT