Shohei Ohtani hit his first home run in nine games with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The two-way phenom hit his first long ball of the season against the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday at Dodger Stadium, hitting reliever Taylor Rodgers deep in a 5-4 win. Statcast measured the ball traveling 430 feet and 165.6 miles per hour from the plate.
Like many of Ohtani's home runs, the contact sounded different.
Below is another angle focusing on the man himself.
The fans who caught the home run were then seen being escorted out of the stands. The Athletic's Sam Blum later reported She traded the home run ball for the ball, two caps, a bat, and a meeting with Ohtani.
Home runs by left-handed batters are a rarity for Rodgers, a left-handed sidearm. Ohtani's same-side home run is the eighth Rodgers has allowed in his nine-year MLB career and the first since 2021.
This home run gave the Dodgers a 5-3 lead over the rival Giants, and in the next inning, San Francisco slugger Jorge Soler hit a huge solo shot to cut the lead to one point, a very important result. It became.
With the bottom of the eighth inning scoreless, the Dodgers turned to journeyman reliever Dinelson Lamet to record his first career save, which he accomplished on a 1-2-3 top of the ninth.
Ohtani's home run came after a somewhat slow start for baseball's most famous player. He entered 2024 with a lot of attention and pressure after signing a long-delayed 10-year, $700 million free agent contract with the Dodgers. He entered Wednesday hitting .242/.297/.333, which isn't bad for this early in the season unless you have Ohtani's expectations.
Ash spoke to reporters after the match:
“Honestly, I was relieved to hit my first home run. It's been a while, but to be honest, my swing wasn't very good. Overall, I was very relieved.”
With this home run, Ohtani moved one step closer to making humorous history. He is just six behind current Dodgers manager Dave Roberts for the most home runs by a Japanese-born player in Dodgers history. As Sara Langs of MLB.com points out:.
