All eyes were on Shohei Ohtani's Dodgers pitching debut on Monday night.
And even though the box score is nothing worth writing home about -- a one-inning stint as an opener doesn't tell you much of anything -- every baseball fan should be excited after Ohtani's start.
Why? His stuff was as good as ever.
Sure, Ohtani might have some command issues to work out. Sure, he might not have struck out a batter. Whatever. Ohtani's arsenal looked nasty against the Padres, and that's much more important after two years away from the mound.
Here are three takeaways from Pitcher Ohtani's long-awaited return.
1) He was throwing hard
When a pitcher comes back from elbow surgery, you look for a velocity dip. But Ohtani's pitches were buzzing.
His velocity was up 2-3 mph across the board from where he was in 2023 before his injury.
His fastball even hit triple digits. Ohtani's 100.2 mph four-seamer to Luis Arraez was his first 100 mph pitch since Aug. 3, 2023.
Ohtani's stuff might cool off a little when he's not pitching with the adrenaline of his first game in two years. But even adrenaline doesn't let most pitchers rip 100 mph heaters.
Ohtani is now one of only five Dodgers starters to touch triple digits in the 10-plus years of the Statcast era, along with Roki Sasaki, Bobby Miller, Dustin May and Walker Buehler.
Ohtani said he expected to sit at 95-96 mph. Instead he sat at 99 and touched 100. If any of his velo bump is sustainable, it'll make a big difference for his fastball outcomes.
Just look at the two swings and misses he got on his four-seamer Monday night. Ohtani got a superstar slugger in Fernando Tatis Jr. to whiff on a 98.3 mph fastball that was right down the middle. And he got a superstar contact hitter in Luis Arraez to whiff on a 98.6 mph fastball when Luis Arraez almost never swings and misses against fastballs.
At the risk of oversimplifying: Throwing 100 mph is good.
2) He threw more sinkers, and nasty sinkers
Look for Ohtani to use his sinker more this season. It's a pitch that should create more balance in his arsenal.
Ohtani's sinker will help keep hitters from locking in on his four-seamer, and it also pairs well with his sweeper, because the two pitches move in exact opposite directions.
But it only works if it's, well, a good sinker. And his sinker looked nasty on Monday.
Ohtani's sinker averaged 97.4 mph with 25 inches of vertical drop and 15 inches of arm-side run. That's the same movement he was getting in 2023 … but with almost three full mph of extra velocity.
The vertical movement stands out in particular, because sinkers that are thrown that hard don't usually generate that much drop. Only a handful of high-velocity sinker throwers, like Paul Skenes and the Angels' José Soriano, also generate comparable amounts of sink to Ohtani.
Ohtani threw a couple of really good sinkers against the Padres, both front-door sinkers to get called strikes on Arraez and Gavin Sheets, at 97.4 mph and 98.8 mph.
And overall, he threw 29% sinkers in his outing. Ohtani's sinker usage in 2023 was just 6%.
3) His sweeper shape was sharp
Ohtani's sweeper has become his most-used pitch as his career has progressed, and for good reason. He throws a really, really good sweeper. Maybe the best sweeper in the Majors.
Between 2022 and '23, Ohtani racked up 153 strikeouts on sweepers, the most of any pitcher. And even though he didn't collect any K's in his 2025 pitching debut, the qualities that make Ohtani's sweeper so nasty are still there.
Ohtani's sweeper averaged 86.6 mph with 12 inches of horizontal break against the Padres. That's more in line with the 2022 version of his sweeper, which averaged 85.3 mph with 14 inches of break) -- high velocity, sharp movement. (Ohtani's 2023 sweeper was a little "sweepier" at 83.7 mph with 16 inches of break.) But more velocity on a sweeper will often make for a more effective pitch, even with tighter break.
And Ohtani's sweeper throws a significantly harder sweeper than the typical big league pitcher, without sacrificing his nasty movement.
The one swinging strike Ohtani got with his sweeper last night was slightly slower, 84.2 mph, but that's still two mph faster than the average Major League sweeper. And he really should have had a strikeout on a filthy 88.4 mph against Manny Machado, but it was ruled that Machado had checked his swing.
Seeing those sweepers is enough to know that once Ohtani gets command of his breaking balls, the whiffs are going to come in bunches.