Jen Pawol, the first woman to become a major league umpire, was behind the plate for the Angels–Dodgers game Friday night as Shohei Ohtani greeted her at the start of each of his at-bats. Pawol is 49, was on MLB’s call-up list rather than a permanent staff ope
LOS ANGELES — The moment Shohei Ohtani walked up to the plate in the bottom of the first, it was the same ritual he follows in every one of his at-bats: he greeted the umpire.
Behind the plate stood Jen Pawol.
Pawol — who made history last year as the first woman umpire in the major leagues — was working the Angels–Dodgers game on Friday night. Ohtani opened his first trip to the plate with her in position. and the game’s early pages already carried a familiar sound and an unusual marker of progress: a history being lived. pitch by pitch.
Pawol is 49. She has umpired during spring training for the third straight year, but she did not receive one of the permanent staff openings. Instead, she is part of MLB’s call-up list.
Her work this season has also included a new layer of baseball’s evolving technology. She worked her first game of the automated balls and strikes challenge system on April 17, when the Giants visited the Nationals.
Pawol’s rise is grounded in years of experience. She has been a minor league ump since 2016 and has worked at Triple-A since 2023.
In the major leagues, she crossed a line on Aug. 9, 2025, becoming the first female major league umpire. She worked a total of five big league games last season. In 2024, she became the first woman to umpire big league spring training games since Ria Cortesio in 2007.
The timing of Friday night’s game made Pawol’s presence feel even sharper. Angels starter Reid Detmers threw three hitless innings before allowing a single to Freddie Freeman in the fourth. On the other side. Dodgers starter Roki Sasaki pitched no-hit ball through the first four innings before giving up a double to Nick Madrigal in the fifth.
And after the play-by-play settled, the record mattered too. This story was corrected to show Jen Pawol previously umpired this season.
For Ohtani, the greeting behind the plate is routine. For Pawol, it is a familiar spot in the middle of big moments. On Friday night, those two paths met right where the game is decided: between the catcher’s target and the first pitch of the first inning.
Jen Pawol Shohei Ohtani Angels-Dodgers MLB umpire first woman umpire automated balls and strikes challenge Reid Detmers Roki Sasaki Freddie Freeman Nick Madrigal
Good for her. Baseball is finally catching up I guess.
Wait so she’s not a permanent ump? Like what does that even mean, call-up like baseball player call up? Seems weird she’s making history but not on the staff.
Automatic balls and strikes + an ump named Pawol?? I feel like they should just replace everyone with robots then. Also wasn’t it corrected because she umpired “earlier” or whatever? News articles always “correct” stuff after.
The headline makes it sound like Ohtani was greeting her like a friend before every at bat… but it’s just the normal thing right? Either way I like seeing a woman back there. Also the game had a no-hitter going and then it got ruined, so of course people are focusing on the ump lol.