Yoshinobu Yamamoto sends his love to Shohei Ohtani after first pitching outing since Tommy John surgery

Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, in the absence of pitching stars such as Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell, and Tyler Glasnow, is having an All-Star caliber year for the defending champions. The Japanese hurler currently owns a 6-5 record with a 2.64 ERA and 90 strikeouts across 78 1/3 innings.

In a photo shared by Yamamoto featuring Ohtani, he sent his well wishes and shared his admiration for his countryman after the latter made his pitching return after more than a year.

Yamamoto lauds Ohtani after mound return (yoshinobu__yamamoto/Instagram)

"So cool," said Yamamoto.

Shohei Ohtani is coming off a Tommy John surgery that occured way back in September 2023. Just a month prior, he made his last major league start for the Angels. Since then, he was pulled from pitching activities to preserve his arm.

The baseball superstar was then utilized as a full-time designated hitter and has since moved to the other side of Los Angeles. Ohtani won a plethora of awards with the Dodgers during his first campaign in 2024, including his first ever World Series title, his third MVP award, and the opening of the 50-50 club.

Shohei Ohtani's brief pitching debut for Dodgers

When club skipper Dave Roberts named Shohei Ohtani as the starter for Game 1 against the San Diego Padres on Monday, the baseball world was embroiled in anticipation as the face of modern-day baseball is back to his natural habitat as a two-way player.

His appearance, however, was brief. Ohtani pitched just one inning and threw 28 pitches, 16 of which were strikes. What's impressive about his short stint was that he recorded the second-fastest pitch thrown by a Dodgers this year when he reached 100.2 miles an hour on a four-seamer. He surrendered an earned run on two base hits before being replaced by Anthony Banda.

Not wanting to spoil their superstar's effort, the champions dominated their NL West rivals as all but one of the starting nine recorded a hit. After Shohei Ohtani gave up the opening run to Fernando Tatis Jr. via Manny Machado's sacrifice fly, he tied things up in the third inning when he drove in Andy Pages through an RBI-double.

Xander Bogaerts would answer back for the Friars with an RBI-double of his own before Max Muncy, Tommy Edman, Ohtani, and Mookie Betts opened a five-spot in the fourth frame. Machado smashed a home run in the sixth to cut the lead to three but that was all the visitors wrote as the Dodgers won, 6-3.