Sho-time at Dodger Stadium as Ohtani makes his long-awaited return to the mound after elbow surgery

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shohei Ohtani gave up a pair of two-strike hits and a run in his Los Angeles Dodgers pitching debut against the San Diego Padres on Monday night, 21 months after the two-way superstar had elbow surgery.

Ohtani threw 28 pitches — 16 for strikes — in the first inning as the sellout crowd of 53,207 hung on every one. They oohed when a fastball was clocked at 100.2 mph — the second-hardest pitch thrown by a Dodgers hurler this season.

“I was aiming to sit 95-96," Ohtani said through a translator, “but the game intensity really allowed me to throw a little harder.”

Ohtani said his nerves were "definitely a little bit more than when I was solely a position player.”

After retiring Xander Bogaerts on a grounder for the third out, Ohtani walked over to an umpire who checked his hands and glove. He didn’t enter the dugout. Instead, he put on his batting gloves and other equipment near the railing and walked to the on-deck circle to prepare to lead off the bottom of the first.

Ohtani struck out swinging against Padres starter Dylan Cease, but then tied the score at 1 with a run-scoring double to left-center in the third. The three-time MVP added a two-out RBI single that gave the Dodgers a 5-2 lead in the fourth on the way to a 6-3 victory. He finished 2 for 4 with a walk and two strikeouts at the plate.

Ohtani anticipates pitching once a week going forward.

“But I did hit 100 (mph) today, so I want to see first where my body feels and how it reacts," he said. "But the expectation is for me to go once a week. Hopefully to be able to go a little longer every time I’m out there so that the bullpen won’t be so taxed.”

Ohtani faced Fernando Tatis Jr., Luis Arráez, Manny Machado, Gavin Sheets and Bogaerts in the first. Tatis flared a single to center field and went to second on Ohtani's wild pitch. Arráez singled and Machado's sacrifice fly scored Tatis. Sheets and Bogaerts grounded out.

“Stuff looked electric,” Dodgers teammate Max Muncy said, “but when you haven’t pitched in that long of a time and you don’t really get a chance to do any rehab games, maybe the command isn’t going to be there and that’s kind of what we saw tonight.”

Anthony Banda replaced Ohtani on the mound in the second.

“I think I got the best seat in the house to watch it and to watch this guy start and then take an at-bat,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before the game. “This is bananas. I'm thrilled.”

Major League Baseball made the game available for free on streaming site MLB.tv.

The Japanese right-hander was pitching in a big league game about three weeks after facing hitters in simulated at-bats for the first time. All the while, Ohtani was still wielding his powerful bat in the lineup for the NL West leaders.

“It got to the point where, hey, it feels like we should take that next step and almost look to finish the rehab at the major league level because of the taxing nature of what he was doing,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said.

Typically, pitchers returning from injuries go on minor league rehab assignments, but Ohtani is an exception.

“It’s been really encouraging overall the way he’s bounced back and been able to continue to feel good doing both,” Gomes said.

Gomes acknowledged the team is in a unique situation, trying to balance Ohtani's offensive prowess with his pitching ability while erring on the side of caution.

“We don't know how he's going to come out, if his legs are going to be tired. We have to make sure that we're also keeping one of our best hitters in the lineup,” Gomes said. “It has to be an ongoing conversation and making sure that Shohei is the one driving this conversation.”

Ohtani began the night batting .290 with 25 homers, which led the National League, 41 RBIs and 11 stolen bases in the leadoff spot.

While Ohtani won't be throwing deep into games at first, just his presence on the mound figures to bolster a staff that has been decimated by injuries. The Dodgers have eight starters, including Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell and Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki, and six relievers on the injured list.

Ohtani is already on the roster as the designated hitter, so the Dodgers are essentially adding an extra pitcher without having to make a corresponding roster move.

Ohtani helped the Dodgers win their eighth World Series title — and his first — last season, the first of a $700 million, 10-year contract. He earned his third MVP award and first in the National League.

He hadn't pitched since 2023 with the Los Angeles Angels. He was 10-5 with a 3.14 ERA and 167 strikeouts in 23 starts that season. His last mound appearance was on Aug. 23, 2023, when he got hurt during an outing against Cincinnati.

Ohtani had Tommy John surgery on Oct. 1, 2018, and is recovering from a second major operation on his right elbow Sept. 19, 2023.

“I’m just really grateful," he said. "Reflecting back on all the support that I received from the doctors that operated on me, the support staff, the team and everybody who supported me along the way. I’m just grateful that, aside from the results, to be able to show and be grateful for the moment I had.”

Ohtani's pitching debut for the Dodgers came on the same day his former interpreter reported to federal prison in Pennsylvania. Ippei Mizuhara received a nearly five-year sentence for bank and tax fraud after he stole almost $17 million from Ohtani.

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Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani drives in a run with a double during the third inning of a baseball game against the San Diego Padres, Monday, June 16, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani throws to a San Diego Padres batter during the first inning of a baseball game Monday, June 16, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani throws to a San Diego Padres batter during the first inning of a baseball game Monday, June 16, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)

Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani reacts has he bats during the first inning of a baseball game against the San Diego Padres, Monday, June 16, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani waves near the mound during the first inning of a baseball game against the San Diego Padres, Monday, June 16, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani, right, shakes hands with catcher Will Smith during the first inning of a baseball game against the San Diego Padres, Monday, June 16, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani throws to a San Diego Padres batter during the first inning of a baseball game Monday, June 16, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)

Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani prepares on base during the first inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants in Los Angeles, Sunday, June 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)

Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani reacts alongside Yoshinobu Yamamoto during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants in Los Angeles, Sunday, June 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States carried out a lightning military strike on Venezuela early Saturday, capturing President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and spiriting them out of the country. President Donald Trump said the U.S. is “going to run” Venezuela until a transition of power can occur and the U.S. will tap the country's vast oil reserves as part of a rebuilding effort.

American officials say Maduro and his wife will face narco-terrorism charges in U.S. courts.

The overnight operation left Venezuela reeling, with its leadership uncertain and details of casualties and the impact on its military still to emerge. Countries across the region and the wider world were absorbing the destabilizing implications of the apparently unilateral U.S. action.

Here’s what we know — and what we don’t.

Explosions rang out and low-flying aircraft swept through Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, early Saturday. At least seven blasts were heard in an attack that lasted less than 30 minutes. The targets appeared to include military infrastructure. Smoke was seen rising from the hangar of a military base in Caracas and another military installation in the capital was without power.

Venezuelan ruling party leader Nahum Fernández told The Associated Press that Maduro and Flores were at their home within the Ft. Tiuna military installation outside Caracas when they were captured.

Venezuelan officials said people had been killed, but the scale of casualties was unclear.

The attack followed months of escalating pressure by the Trump administration, which has built up naval forces in the waters off South America and since early September has carried out deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean. Last week the U.S. struck Venezuelan soil with a CIA drone strike at a docking area alleged to have been used by drug cartels.

Trump said during a news conference Saturday the U.S. would run the country and gestured to officials arrayed behind, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and said they’d be the ones doing it “for a period of time.”

Trump claimed the American presence was already in place, though there were no immediate signs of this. He suggested the U.S. would use revenues from oil sales to pay for running the country.

“We’re going to get reimbursed for everything that we spend,” he said.

Trump claimed that Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez had been sworn in as president shortly before he spoke to reporters and added she had spoken with Rubio.

“She is essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again. Very simple,” Trump said.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said on social network X that Maduro and Flores had both been indicted in the Southern District of New York and “will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”

Maduro was indicted in March 2020, during Trump’s first term, but the indictment against Flores was not previously made public.

In the indictment made public on Saturday, Maduro is charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.

U.S. authorities accused Maduro of leading a “a corrupt, illegitimate government that, for decades, has leveraged government power to protect and promote illegal activity, including drug trafficking.” The indictment alleges the drug trafficking “enriched and entrenched Venezuela’s political and military elite.”

Authorities estimate that as much as 250 tons of cocaine were trafficked through Venezuela by 2020, according to the indictment. The drugs were moved on go-fast vessels, fishing boats and container ships or by plane from clandestine airstrips, authorities allege.

Trump said Maduro and his wife are aboard a U.S. warship and will face prosecution in New York.

Trump gave some details of the operation during a Saturday morning interview on “Fox and Friends.”

He said a few U.S. members of the operation were injured but he believed no one was killed.

He said Maduro was “highly guarded” in a presidential palace akin to a “fortress” and the Venezuelan leader tried to get to a safe room but wasn’t able to get there in time.

Trump said U.S. forces practiced the operation ahead of time on a replica building, and the U.S. turned off “almost all of the lights in Caracas,” although he didn’t detail how they accomplished that.

Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, also offered some details of the operation, saying some Venezuelan civilians and members of the military were killed.

The U.S. does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, and the legal implications of the strike under U.S. law were not immediately clear.

The Trump administration maintains that Maduro is not the legitimate leader of Venezuela and claims he has effectively turned Venezuela into a criminal enterprise at the service of drug traffickers and terrorist groups.

Mike Lee, a U.S. senator from Utah, said on X that the action “likely falls within the president’s inherent authority under Article II of the Constitution to protect U.S. personnel from an actual or imminent attack.”

But some Democrats were more critical.

Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, said in a statement, “President Trump’s unauthorized military attack on Venezuela to arrest Maduro — however terrible he is — is a sickening return to a day when the United States asserted the right to dominate the internal political affairs of all nations in the Western Hemisphere.”

Maduro’s government accused the United States of an “imperialist attack” on civilian and military installations and urged citizens to take to the streets.

Armed individuals and uniformed members of a civilian militia took to the streets of a Caracas neighborhood long considered a stronghold of the ruling party. But in other areas of the city, the streets remained empty hours after the attack. Parts of the city remained without power, but vehicles moved freely.

Venezuela’s neighbor Colombia sent troops to the border and anticipated an influx of refugees.

Latin American leaders were sharply divided over the strikes. Trump’s right-wing ally President Javier Milei of Argentina celebrated the operation, while leftist Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva condemned American actions and warned of the sharp repercussions of past American interventions in Latin America.

Cuba, a supporter of the Maduro government and a longtime adversary of the United States, urged the international community to respond to what President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez called “the criminal attack.”

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the attack and capture of Maduro would be “an unacceptable infringement on the sovereignty of an independent state.”

U.S. allies in Europe — critical of Maduro but mindful of international law — offered muted responses as they scrambled to understand the scale and implications of the attack.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc “has repeatedly stated that Mr Maduro lacks legitimacy and has defended a peaceful transition. Under all circumstances, the principles of international law and the U.N. Charter must be respected. We call for restraint.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he had not spoken to Trump about the attack and stressed that “the U.K. was not involved in any way.” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Spain was “conducting a thorough monitoring of the events in Venezuela” and called for “de-escalation and responsibility.”

Lawless reported from London. Associated Press Writer Danica Kirka in London contributed to this story.

FILE - President Nicolas Maduro acknowledges supporters alongside first lady Cilia Flores during his closing election campaign rally in Caracas, Venezuela, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)

Pro-government armed civilians patrol in La Guaira, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that President Nicolás Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro embrace in downtown Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Men watch smoke rising from a dock after explosions were heard at La Guaira port, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Smoke raises at La Carlota airport after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)