Shohei Otani suddenly in great shape! SHO-TIME 2025″ started in Tokyo!

The ticket price for the game was multiplied by 1,000.

At that moment, the sound faded from the packed Tokyo Dome.

It was Shohei Ohtani, 30, who was to bat first for the Dodgers, the world’s best baseball team, in the first game of the “MLB Tokyo Series 2025” on March 18.

After observing Cubs starting pitcher Shota Imanaga (31) taking practice pitches, Ohtani finally went to bat, and the crowd of 40,000 people who had been cheering him on forgot their words and watched the first swing of the greatest player of all time.

The ticket price for the game is rumored to be 1,000 times higher than the price of a ticket to the game. Since there was no ringing cheering at the Major League Baseball game, the atmosphere was so tense that you could almost hear the players breathing.

Ohtani has been on a roll since the opening game, and in a preseason game against the Giants on March 15, he hit an extra-large arch into the right field stands,” said a reporter who covered the game there.

In the preseason game, he hit a curveball by Shoyuki Togo (24). The Giants had been pushing mainly straight pitches until then, but they chose this pitch in order to shift the timing.

I don’t think Ohtani was expecting this, but he caught it without opening his right shoulder at all and sent it 120 meters off the end of his bat, which had been ridiculed for not flying. If he had been in bad shape, it would have been a foul to the right or a swinging strike. Since his ideal form was completed even before the season started, I think he will score 20 to 30 runs and 50 runs by the end of June, when he is expected to make a comeback to his two-fisted style,” said Nachi Tomonari, a sportswriter.

The Dodgers have strengthened their pitching staff, their only weak point, by acquiring two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell (32) and Akinori Sasaki (23), who was the starting pitcher in Game 2 of the Tokyo Series this season.

The reason for the postponement of Ohtani’s return to pitching, which was originally scheduled for May, is that the starting lineup is more complete than last year’s. After two surgeries, they don’t want to push him too hard, as they say it is his “last chance. The longer his rehabilitation is, the more room he has to evolve. He may come back with an increased velocity.

The focus in the early part of the season will be on Ohtani, the hitter. Can he match the 50-50 record he achieved last season, when he won two batting titles?

Otani is refining his pitch selection this year. Although he is expected to steal fewer bases, his on-base percentage and batting average should improve. Also, the Dodgers have strengthened their lower batting lineup, so it will be easier for him to bat in the order with a chance to score runs. A .320 batting average, 50 home runs, and 140 runs batted in would be enough to win the Triple Crown, and since teammate Mookie Betts (32) holds the record for most runs batted in by a No. 1 hitter in a season with 107, this would be a significant improvement.

Finally, the “SHO-TIME” of 2025 has begun. In contrast to last season, which began with the betrayal of a fellow player, will Otani be able to decorate this memorable season with the birth of his first child in the best possible way?

From “FRIDAY” April 4 and 11, 2025