Major League Baseball

Shohei Ohtani helps Dodgers rally past Padres in season opener in Korea

Updated Mar. 20, 2024 10:21 a.m. ET

Shohei Ohtani’s RBI single capped a four-run eighth-inning rally in his Dodgers debut, and Los Angeles beat the San Diego Padres 5-2 in Wednesday’s season opener.

The game turned when a routine grounder went through the webbing of the glove of first baseman Jake Cronenworth as the go-ahead run scored.

Ohtani went 2-for-5 in his first game since leaving the Los Angeles Angels for a record $700 million, 10-year contract with the Dodgers. A crowd of 15,952 was on hand to watch at the Gocheok Sky Dome for Major League Baseball’s first game in South Korea.

The two-way star, limited to batting following elbow surgery, also had a mental error that caused the final out of the eighth. He was called out when he passed second base and then failed to retouch the bag while retreating on Freddie Freeman’s flyout, causing an inning-ending double play.

A bomb threat did not seem to affect pregame preparations. Police found no explosives and said they acted on a tip that the threat was against Ohtani.

San Diego led 2-1 entering the eighth when Max Muncy led off with a walk against Wandy Peralta. Teoscar Hernández, also making his Dodgers debut, singled off Jhony Brito (0-1), among the players the Padres obtained in the trade that sent star Juan Soto to the New York Yankees.

James Outman walked — Padres pitchers issued nine free passes — and Kiké Hernández’s sacrifice fly tied the score. Adrián Morejón relieved and Gavin Lux hit a chopper that Cronenworth tried to backhand only for the ball to go right through the webbing of the large first baseman’s mitt as Hernández came home for a 3-2 lead. Cronenworth was charged with the hard-luck error.

Mookie Betts and Ohtani followed with RBI singles.

Betts, Ohtani and Freeman became the first MVPs to hit 1-2-3 in a batting order since Philadelphia’s Joe Morgan, Pete Rose and Mike Schmidt during 10 games in 1983. The only other instances were by Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine, with Rose, Morgan and George Foster on May 13, 1978, and Rose, Morgan and Johnny Bench on May 5, 1976.

Betts, who moved to shortstop this season, combined with Ohtani to go 4 for 9 at the top of the order.

Daniel Hudson (1-0), the third of five Dodgers pitchers, threw a one-hit seventh. Evan Phillips pitched a perfect ninth for the save, finishing a four-hitter that gave the Dodgers their sixth straight win over the Padres in an opener.

With new wife Mamiko Tanaka watching from the strands, Ohtani got his first hit with the Dodgers in a 112.3 mph single to right against Yu Darvish. He tried to steal second but was sent back because of umpire interference by Lance Barksdale on Campusano behind the plate.

Xander Bogaerts put the Padres ahead in the third with a run-scoring single off Tyler Glasnow. Bogaerts became the third player with hits in five nations after Edgardo Alfonzo and Paul Goldschmidt, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Bogaerts also has hits in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and England.

Jason Heyward had a sacrifice fly in the fourth, and San Diego went back ahead in the bottom half when Luis Campusano hit a run-scoring double-play grounder.

Glasnow gave up two runs, two hits and four walks over five innings, throwing 77 pitches. Los Angeles acquired him from Tampa Bay in December and signed the 30-year-old right-hander to a $136.5 million, five-year contract.

Darvish allowed an unearned run and two hits in 3 2/3 innings.

Muncy had the first hit of the season, lining a single off the end of his bat in the second and into center.

Starting his 12th season, Bogaerts made his first big-league appearance at second as Ha-Seong Kim moved to shortstop.

In the first game since MLB shortened the pitch clock with runners on base by two seconds to 18, Padres pitchers were called for four violations, including two by Peralta and one each by Darvish and Yuki Matsui.

Matsui, the fourth of eight San Diego pitchers, got two outs in the sixth inning of his Padres debut. He agreed to a $28 million, five-year contract.

Kim, playing in his native country, was 0 for 3 with a walk.

Trainer's room

Dodgers: RHPs Walker Buehler (Tommy John surgery), Brusdar Graterol (shoulder inflammation), Blake Treinen (bruised lung) and Emmet Sheehan (right forearm inflammation) were placed on the 10-day IL. RHP Landon Knack was recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City.

Padres: RHPs Glenn Otto (right teres major strain) and Luis Patiño (right elbow inflammation) were placed on the 15-day IL and INF Tucupita Marcano (right knee ACL surgery on Aug. 9) on the 10-day IL.

Up next

RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto makes his major-league debut Thursday after agreeing to a $325 million, 12-year contract with the Dodgers. He had an 8.38 ERA over 9 2/3 innings in three spring training outings. "I’m not really concerned about the numbers," he said through a translator. ... RHP Joe Musgrove starts for the Padres after going 10-3 with a 3.05 ERA in 17 starts last year.

Chan Ho Park, first Korean in MLB, throws ceremonial first pitch in Dodgers-Padres opener

Using the glove from his first major-league appearance, former Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres pitcher Chan Ho Park threw the ceremonial first pitch ahead of the season opener in South Korea.

Park, who began his Major League Baseball career in 1994 with Los Angeles as the first South Korean-born player in the big leagues, waved to cheering crowds packing Seoul's Gocheok Sky Dome. Wearing a half-half jersey representing both teams, Park went into his wind-up and threw the ball to the Padres' current South Korean shortstop Ha-Seong Kim.

Before the game, Park, who currently works as an adviser with San Diego, expressed pride about how his achievements and those of his former Japanese teammate, Hideo Nomo, inspired younger generations of Asian players to try and reach the majors. Nomo joined the Dodgers in 1995.

"When I look at all these Asian players today, I feel that the tree planted by Hideo Nomo has grown strong and the tree planted by Chan Ho Park has grown strong, and that the fruits of those trees are now leading the majors and inspiring new hope," Park said.

Park holds the MLB record for most wins by an east Asian pitcher, going 124-98 with a 4.36 ERA. He was an All-Star in 2001, when he went 15-11 with a 3.50 ERA for the Dodgers. His 17-year MLB career also included stops with the Texas Rangers, Padres, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Yankees and Pittsburgh Pirates.

Park, who retired in 2012, remains one of the most popular sports personalities in South Korea, where many people remember how his heroics cheered up a nation weathering a crippling financial crisis in the late-1990s.

Reporting by The Associated Press.