A few hours before the Dodgers faced the New York Yankees for their second game of the weekend series, Shohei Ohtani took the mound as he threw another bullpen session on Saturday. He hasn’t made a big league pitching appearance since late 2023. Meanwhile, the Dodgers aren’t sure what their pitching rotation will look like in October. What they do know is they will have Shohei Ohtani.

The two-way phenom has been delivering the MVP-level offense as a DH. At the same time, he’s been working his way towards his first big league pitching appearance for a while now. On Saturday at Dodger Stadium, he threw 29 pitches across two innings. On the other side of the ball was the Dodgers’ Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Affiliate.

After Ohtani’s bullpen session, manager Dave Roberts made a media appearance to share updates on how Ohtani performed. When asked how Ohtani looked, he responded, “Shohei looked good. I think he threw 30 pitches and used his entire mix. Faked some hitters up and down and came out of it well, which is most important.” Just for the record, this was Ohtani’s first bullpen session thrown off the Dodger Stadium mound. He hasn’t pitched a game there ever since signing with the Dodgers prior to the 2024 season.

Then came the reveal—Roberts was asked if there is a time frame on Ohtani’s return to actual game action. He answered, “No, no, I don’t think, you know, looking out, it’s still got to get to five or six innings. So we still got ways to go.” Yes, there’s no exact date of his return yet. However, the Dodgers will gradually stretch him out.

When pressed on if they will be upping his pitch count, Roberts replied, “I think so. You know, whether it’s another two-inning stint next week on Saturday or getting it to three, I’m not sure, but that’s the kind of program it is.” Ohtani is surely progressing, but the Dodgers are in no way going to rush it. For Ohtani, returning from elbow surgery he sustained on September 19, 2023, crisp command isn’t something that will fall into place easily.

And Roberts didn’t shy away from offering the transparent assessment. “I think he wishes his command would have been a little bit better. But a really positive day for sure.” He said. Even without an exact time frame for his return, it’s buzzing enough that he’s touching 97 mph velocity already. To add on, just a day before his bullpen session, he shattered the 73-year-old Dodgers’ record.

Shohei Ohtani smashes 73-year-old Dodgers record

On Friday night, the opening game of the three-game series against the Yankees, the Dodgers snatched an 8-5 win. And Shohei Ohtani delivered a record-breaking show that has the league still buzzing.

He entered the game with 20 home runs this season to his name. And at his first at-bat, he swung at the first pitch from the Yankees’ pitcher Max Fried. He sent it all the way up to 417 feet. Later, in the sixth inning, he did it again. And after his second home run of the night, his total was 22 home runs in 57 games. And that’s how he broke the long-standing record, which was once held by a Hall of Famer back in time.

The first to establish this mark was Gil Hodges in 1951. During that time, Hodges was playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Across his first 57 games of that season, he slammed 21 home runs. And ever since, no other Dodger had crossed that number until Shohei Ohtani did.

Ohtani’s bat helped the Dodgers dominate the Yankees. The win snapped the Yankees’ 5-game hot winning streak. Yankees skipper Aaron Boone expressed after the win, “There were MVPs, All-Stars, and great players all around. The stars showed up.” Certainly. Friday was just a déjà vu of the 2024 World Series. The Dodgers made sure to repeat history.