NEW YORK — At 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Shohei Ohtani climbed a big league hill for the first time in 614 days.
It wasn’t in front of a sold-out crowd. The Citi Field gates hadn’t even opened. There were no fielders. The catcher called balls and strikes. His opponents were a pair of rookie teammates and a member of the Dodgers coaching staff who hadn’t faced professional pitching in nine years.
Officially, it was just a live batting practice session, a low-stakes environment for a recovering pitcher to ease back into competition.