Dodgers News: LA’s first spring training win, Roki Sasaki marriage, Shohei Ohtani

The Dodgers going 0-3 in their first spring training games raised a lot of premature red flags for some fans, even though no one should be taking spring games all that seriously. It might have something to do with the final scores; LA was blown out in their opener against the Cubs, lost by four in their second game, and were edged out by one run in the ninth against the Royals.

It's understandable on a certain level; no one likes to watch their team lose, even if it's in zero-stakes situations. And the Dodgers assuaged some fears on Sunday, when they beat the Padres 8-3 with a five-run rally in the bottom of the eighth.

Non-roster invitee David Bote led the charge with a go-ahead single, then top prospects Kody Hoese and Griffin Powell-Lockwood tacked on four more before pitcher Brandon Neeck pitched an uneven, but ultimately scoreless, top of the ninth.

The other big highlight of the day was Dustin May's emotional return to the mound for the first time since mid-May 2023. The Dodgers only gave him one inning, but he kept the game scoreless and only allowed one hit while striking out a batter.

Dodgers News: Dodgers win their first spring training game against Padres, Roki Sasaki announces his marriage, Shohei Ohtani pitching update

When Roki Sasaki announced he was signing with the Dodgers, he took the same route as now-teammate Shohei Ohtani and put it on Instagram before anyone else could break the news. After the Dodgers' spring opener, he did exactly the same thing to announce his marriage, right down to some of the verbiage (he described his new wife as an "ordinary woman").

Neither Sasaki nor Ohtani have made their spring training debuts yet, but Dave Roberts expects that both will happen within the coming week. Ohtani won't be pitching in real games until May, but he's throwing bullpens in camp. Per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register, he got up to 25 pitches in his third bullpen on Saturday and touched 95 MPH on his fastball.

He's been slowly working more pitches from his repertoire into each bullpen and has ramped up from 14 to 21 to 25 total pitches. While putting him on the mound in a spring training game is basically out of the question, his return to the plate during Cactus League play will still be a highlight (and it'll hopefully help the Dodgers improve their spring record).