Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani and his wife, Mamiko Tanaka, announced the birth of their first child Saturday.

“I am so grateful to my loving wife who gave birth to our healthy beautiful daughter,” Ohtani wrote in an Instagram post. “To my daughter, thank you for making us very nervous yet super anxious parents.”

The Dodgers placed Ohtani on MLB’s paternity list prior to their series opener Friday night against the Texas Rangers.

Manager Dave Roberts said after Saturday’s 4-3 loss to the Rangers that Ohtani texted him and said he would rejoin the club for the series finale Sunday.

Ohtani can miss up to three games while on leave. The Dodgers have an off day Monday, then play the Cubs in Chicago on Tuesday.

Ohtani, 30, posted on his Instagram account in late December that he and Tanaka, 28, a former professional basketball player from his native Japan, were expecting a baby in 2025.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

PITTSBURGH — Paul Skenes doesn’t just make baseballs go fast. The Pittsburgh Pirates‘ young ace can make merchandise fly off shelves, too.

Fans began lining up outside PNC Park more than five hours before Saturday’s game between Pittsburgh and Cleveland in hopes of landing a bobblehead featuring the reigning National League Rookie of the Year.

The gates didn’t open until 90 minutes before the first pitch. Lines stretched out in all directions from the park early Saturday afternoon, including one that snaked over the Roberto Clemente Bridge behind center field, which links Pittsburgh’s North Shore to the city’s downtown.

We know how unique today’s Paul Skenes Rookie of the Year bobblehead giveaway is and how popular it is for our fans. We don’t want any fan who attended today’s game to not receive one.

Any fan who scanned into today’s game after the first 20,000 bobbleheads were given away… pic.twitter.com/e1lZNIEJBL

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) April 19, 2025

Demand grew so great that the club — which has endured its share of public relations issues during the season’s opening weeks — pledged to make sure everyone in the expected sellout crowd who did not receive one will have an opportunity to obtain one.

Team president Travis Williams called interest in the bobblehead “unprecedented,” and in a social media post, the team added that it realized “how popular it is for our fans.”

The promotion also happened to align with Skenes’ fourth start of the season. The top pick in the 2023 amateur draft dropped to 2-2 after allowing two runs over seven innings in a 3-0 loss to the Guardians.

This is hardly the first time an item featuring Skenes drew outsized attention. A one-of-a-kind card featuring Skenes sold for more than $1 million at auction last month.

The card, manufactured by Topps, included a patch of the No. 30 jersey Skenes wore during his big league debut. It generated the kind of buzz typically reserved for iconic collectibles featuring Hall of Famers Honus Wagner, Mickey Mantle and Ken Griffey Jr.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

PHILADELPHIA — Jordan Romano says his right arm felt the best it had in a long time — the two-time All-Star closer even hit 99.8 mph on a four-seam fastball. The Marlins just hit him — rocked him, actually — much, much harder.

The Phillies‘ eight-inning rout turned close in the ninth once Romano was summoned to close out an 11-4 lead. Dane Myers instead hit a three-run homer, Graham Pauley added an RBI double and Liam Hicks added a two-run shot — his first big-league homer — and suddenly it was 11-10.

Romano, already in the midst of a rough first season in Philly, was heavily booed Saturday as he trudged off the mound.

“Kind of expect that when you’re pitching like that, for sure,” Romano said.

Romano was charged with six runs and retired just two batters in the ninth before Jose Alvarado bailed him out and got the final out of the 11-10 win for his fifth save. Romano’s ERA ballooned to 15.26 in nine games this season.

“I felt confident, honestly, in all my pitches,” Romano said. “I don’t know, they were seeing it really well today. Everything I threw in there, I felt like they were pretty comfortable with. Obviously, putting pretty good swings on it.”

After a slow start to the season, Romano thought he might have solved his mechanical issues when he adjusted the leg lift on his delivery. Romano was left to wonder after he gave up six hits on just 22 pitches if perhaps he’s tipping his pitches. He said he’d watch the video to find out if there’s another flaw in his delivery.

“Usually, I don’t [watch video], when it’s just a blooper or something like that,” Romano said. “But when they’re putting that good a swings on it, for sure.”

Manager Rob Thomson said the Phillies will conduct a deeper dive to determine whether Romano is tipping his pitches.

“He’s got a great track record,” Thomson said, adding that he was very surprised at his outing overall. “As long as his stuff is good, you’ve got to believe in him.”

An All-Star in 2022 and 2023, Romano spent the first six seasons of his major league career with the Toronto Blue Jays. He had 105 saves and a 2.90 ERA in 231 relief appearances with Toronto. The Phillies declined to re-sign former All-Star relievers Carlos Estevez and Jeff Hoffman and instead made a short-term bet on Romano with an $8.5 million, one-year contract.

Hoffman signed with the Blue Jays and entered Saturday 2-0 with a 1.59 ERA, 16 strikeouts in 11⅓ innings and five saves.

The 31-year-old Romano was limited to just eight saves in 15 games last season. He had arthroscopic surgery on his elbow in July but has been healthy with the Phillies.

“What’s honestly crazy to me is, like, I went out there and executed what I wanted to do,” Romano said. “It’s just the worst result possible. I wanted to drive the zone with my heater, throw the slider in there for strikes. I did that. Just got crushed.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.