It's Tuesday, June 17 and the Padres (39-32) are in Los Angeles to take on the Dodgers (44-29). Randy Vásquez is slated to take the mound for San Diego. Yesterday, Shohei Ohtani started his first game on the mound since 2023.

It had been 663 days between pitching appearances, depriving baseball fans of the famed wicked four-seam fastball and splitter that they have marveled at from the sport’s most unique player.

The Dodgers are -155 favorites (wager $155 to win $100) on the money line according to the latest SportsLine consensus odds, while the Padres are +129 (wager $100 to win $129) underdogs.

Ohtani came out of his pitching debut for the Los Angeles Dodgers in good order, even if he was his own worst critic.

Nearly 22 months after making his previous big league start, 21 months after undergoing a second major surgery on his right elbow and 18 months after signing a then-record contract with the Dodgers, ...

As a batter, however, Ohtani shined as usual in the Dodgers' 6-3 victory over San Diego, as he went 2-for-4 with two RBIs.

For every split-second that Andy Pages continued his staredown of Dylan Cease, the possibility of Dodgers-Padres fireworks seemed to increase exponentially. Players from both sides jumped the railings of their dugouts and scowled at each other from the warning-track dirt.