SAN DIEGO -- It had been nearly a month since Shohei Ohtani put on a full two-way show.
After solely serving as a pitcher in his previous three starts, Ohtani was back in the lineup in a game he started for the first time since April 22. And he didn't have to wait long to get the Dodgers off to a good start in Wednesday night's rubber game against the Padres at Petco Park.
Ohtani took Padres starter Randy Vásquez deep on the first pitch of the game, a four-seamer that clipped the top of the zone. Center fielder Jackson Merrill tracked the drive to the warning track and leapt at the wall in right-center, but that ball was not coming back.
The game-opening blast was the second leadoff home run by a pitcher in Major League history. The first was also hit by Ohtani, in his masterful two-way performance in Game 4 of last year's NL Championship Series.
It was Ohtani's eighth homer of the season, and just his second hit in 11 at-bats in his pitching appearances this season. While Ohtani has only hit in half of those appearances, Wednesday could be his chance to prove that his season-opening slump at the plate is behind him.
While Ohtani entered his start in San Diego with a 0.82 ERA, he was still finding his footing at the plate. He admitted to feeling some extra motivation to pitch well when he's not contributing as a hitter, and last week, he was out of the starting lineup in back-to-back games for an opportunity to reset.
It seems to have served him well. Including the solid game he had before his two-game reset, Ohtani has hit safely in six straight games. He ended a drought with one homer that left the yard -- and one of the Little League variety that did not.
"My strike-zone awareness is a lot better. I feel like I'm seeing the ball better, the K-zone better," Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. "But also the angle of the baseball that's taking off from my bat, the higher I see, the more home runs I would expect to see."
As he heated up at the plate, it has carried into the two-way performance that only he is capable of putting on.