LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shohei Ohtani’s “Dad Strength” is finally beginning to kick in as the Los Angeles Dodgers' slugger hit his first home run since the birth of his daughter to jump-start a 15-2 victory over the Miami Marlins on Tuesday night.
“It was a good home run to get back on the board for this game,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “I haven’t hit one since being a father, so it’s a really nice one to be able to do that.”
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Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani bats during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins in Los Angeles, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani walks back to the clubhouse during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins in Los Angeles, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani watches in the dugout during the second inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins in Los Angeles, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani stands in the on-deck circle during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins in Los Angeles, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani bats during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins in Los Angeles, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani bats during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins in Los Angeles, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)
Whether it’s myth or statistically proven fact, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is a firm believer in “Dad Strength,” the theory that some players gain physical strength and stamina upon entering fatherhood.
MLB.com’s research department even found that among the more than 200 instances of hitters returning to action from the paternity list from 2011-2024, 28 hit a home run in their first game back.
“Now that he’s a father,” Roberts said last week, “we might see some 120-mph exit velocities off the bat.”
Ohtani, the 2024 National League most valuable player, hit .125 (2 for 16) with no RBIs and six strikeouts in his first four games back from paternity leave.
But in his last four games, Ohtani is batting .467 (7 for 15) with one homer, three doubles, a triple and two RBIs, and the home run he hit Tuesday night on Sandy Alcantara’s first pitch of the game left his bat at 114 mph and traveled 394 feet.
“That was a big tone-setter,” Roberts said of Ohtani’s 14th career leadoff homer. “I think we feed off of Shohei, certainly at the top of the order. For him to make it a 1-1 game after the first pitch their starter throws certainly gets some life into our offense, and we just took it from there. When he’s going, you can see our offense sort of follows suit.”
Ohtani’s homer sparked a three-run first-inning rally, and the Dodgers went on to rack up 18 hits, including four by Teoscar Hernández, who drove in four runs to become the major league leader with 31 RBIs, and three, including a home run, by Andy Pages.
The game was such a blowout, the Dodgers scoring three in the third, four in the sixth and three in the eighth, that both teams finished with position players on the mound — outfielder Javier Sanoja for the Marlins and utility man Kiké Hernández for the Dodgers.
Ohtani, meanwhile, is still trying to adjust to fatherhood since the birth of his daughter on April 19, especially the disruption of his sleep schedule. Ohtani likes to get at least 10 hours of sleep a night and take lengthy naps before games.
“A little change in the routine in terms of, for example today I went to the hospital and came straight to the field,” Ohtani said, later telling Japanese writers that it is customary for some Japanese women to spend a week or two in the hospital after giving birth.
“Just being here at home is nice to be able to spend time, but on the road, it’s going to be a little bit of a challenge since I won’t be here. … But I’m just grateful for the safe delivery. I’m glad that even though I couldn’t sleep as much as I wanted to, it’s a good kind of not-getting-enough-sleep situation.”
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Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani bats during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins in Los Angeles, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani walks back to the clubhouse during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins in Los Angeles, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani watches in the dugout during the second inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins in Los Angeles, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani stands in the on-deck circle during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins in Los Angeles, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani bats during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins in Los Angeles, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani bats during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins in Los Angeles, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)
U.S. forces on Monday launched an effort to guide commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, where hundreds have been stuck since the Iran war began.
Two American-flagged merchant ships have “successfully transited” through the critical waterway, the U.S. military said. Separately, the U.S. military denied Iran’s claims that it struck an American Navy vessel southeast of the strait.
Iran handed over its latest proposal for negotiations with the U.S. to mediators in Pakistan, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported Friday. Trump subsequently said he’s “not satisfied” with it, but did not elaborate on the proposal’s apparent shortcomings. The shaky ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran has lasted for three weeks.
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As part of its National Defense Strategy announced in January — a sweeping document laying out a vision on everything from deterring China to defending against cyberattacks to disrupting Iran’s nuclear ambitions — the Trump administration said Europe must do more for its own defense.
While “we are and will remain engaged in Europe, we must — and will — prioritize defending the U.S. Homeland and deterring China,” it said.
Among other things, the document noted that Europe’s economic power, while shrinking in relative terms globally, remains significant, and said Germany’s economy alone “dwarfs that of Russia.”
“Fortunately, our NATO allies are substantially more powerful than Russia — it is not even close,” it said, noting a recent commitment among NATO allies to raise national defense spending to 5% of GDP in total, a push led by Trump.
The U.S. European Command, created in 1947 and known as EUCOM, is one of 11 combat commands within the Defense Department, and covers some 50 countries and territories.
In addition to more than 36,000 troops in Germany, Italy hosts more than 12,000 and there’s another 10,000 in the United Kingdom, according to Pentagon numbers from December.
The Pentagon has offered few details about which troops or operations would be affected in the drawdown announced Friday.
The U.S. increased its European deployment after Russia launched its full-scale war on Ukraine four years ago. NATO allies like Germany have expected for over a year that these troops would be the first to leave.
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The event in the East Room will bring together more than 130 small business owners as the president highlights his administration’s policies benefiting them.
“Our nation’s 36 million small businesses now have the confidence to hire, reinvest and expand, unleashing an historic era of sustained growth,” Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler said ahead of the event. “America is open for business again.”
The gathering is meant to mark this year’s National Small Business Week and the owners represent manufacturing, food production, defense, energy and retail businesses, among other areas, according to the White House.
European leaders on Monday said President Trump’s snap decision to pull thousands of U.S. troops out of Germany came as a surprise but is a fresh sign that Europe must take care of its own security.
The Pentagon announced last week that it would pull some 5,000 troops out of Germany, but Trump told reporters Saturday that “we’re going to cut way down. And we’re cutting a lot further than 5,000.”
He offered no reason for the move, which blindsided NATO, but his decision came amid an escalating dispute with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, and Trump’s anger over European allies’ reluctance to get involved in the conflict in the Middle East.
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The U.S. stock market is holding tentatively near its record heights Monday, while oil prices climb with uncertainty about when oil tankers can resume crossing the Strait of Hormuz and restore the world’s flow of crude. Dueling claims about a possible Iranian strike on a U.S. Navy vessel in the strait heightened the tensions.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.1%, coming off its latest all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 216 points, or 0.4%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was up 0.1%.
The action was stronger in the oil market, where the price for a barrel of Brent crude climbed 2% to $110.37 and briefly topped $114 during the morning. Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to its war with the United States has kept oil tankers pent up in the Persian Gulf and away from customers worldwide. That in turn has sent the price of Brent soaring from roughly $70 per barrel before the war.
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Rubio will travel to Rome and Vatican City this week in a bid to ease rising tensions between the Trump administration and Pope Leo over U.S. policies, particularly with Iran.
The State Department said Monday that Rubio, a devout Catholic who’s visited Rome and the Vatican at least three times since becoming Trump’s top diplomat, would be in Italy on Thursday and Friday.
“Secretary Rubio will meet with Holy See leadership to discuss the situation in the Middle East and mutual interests in the Western Hemisphere” the department said. “Meetings with Italian counterparts will be focused on shared security interests and strategic alignment.”
The trip comes as Trump has criticized Pope Leo, the first American pontiff, for his stances on the Middle East and elsewhere and posting social media images likening Trump to Jesus Christ.
The disruption of the waterway has squeezed countries in Europe and Asia that depend on Persian Gulf oil and gas, raising prices far beyond the region.
Trump has promised to bring down gas prices as he faces midterm elections this year.
The U.S. has warned shipping companies they could face sanctions for paying Iran for transit of the strait. It has enacted a naval blockade on Iranian ports since April 13, telling 49 commercial ships to turn back, U.S. Central Command said Sunday. The blockade has deprived Tehran of oil revenue it needs to shore up its ailing economy.
U.S. officials have expressed hope the blockade forces Iran back to the negotiation table.
The U.S. military said Monday that two American-flagged merchant ships had successfully transited the Strait of Hormuz and Navy guided-missile destroyers in the Persian Gulf were helping to restore shipping traffic. It separately denied Iran’s claims to have struck an American Navy vessel.
The announcement came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a new initiative to help guide ships through the critical waterway for global energy. Iran has effectively closed the strait since the U.S. and Israel started the war Feb. 28, rattling the global economy.
The U.S.-led Joint Maritime Information Center has advised ships to cross the strait in Oman’s waters, saying it set up an “enhanced security area.” U.S. Central Command didn’t say when the Navy ships arrived or when the merchant vessels departed.
It was unclear whether shipping companies, and their insurers, will feel comfortable taking the risk given that Iran has fired on ships in the waterway and vowed to keep doing so.
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President Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr. step off from Marine One upon their arrival on the South Lawn of the White House, Sunday, May 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
President Donald Trump walks from Marine One to board Air Force One at Ocala International Airport, in Ocala Fla., Friday, May 1, 2026, after speaking at an event in The Villages, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
President Donald Trump steps off from Marine One upon his arrival at the South Lawn of the White House, Sunday, May 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
