They opened the season surrounded by strangers in a tiny, rattling dome in South Korea.
They played two games witnessed in Los Angeles only by those fans willing to awaken in the middle of the night.
By the time they embarked on the 6,000-mile flight home, all hell had broken loose.
Shohei Ohtani, their new global superstar, was linked to millions of dollars in lost bets with an allegedly illegal bookmaker who is the target of a federal investigation.
Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s longtime interpreter, claimed responsibility for the lost bets, then was accused of stealing the money and was fired.