Another day, another ball was wrecked by Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani, who sent one deep during LA's 9-6 win at home over the visiting Boston Red Sox on Sunday.
Ohtani left baseball fans astonished after he hit a towering solo home run off of Red Sox starter Kutter Crawford in the fifth inning that also put the Dodgers ahead at that point, 6-2.
After the game, Ohtani was interviewed on SportsCenter and shared his thoughts on the monster blast he just hit at Dodger Stadium. Asked if he could clear the right field bullpen soon, the two-time big league Most Valuable Player said, via his interpreter, that he is simply “looking forward to getting just more at-bats, especially hitting the big ones at Dodger Stadium.”
Ohtani got an early advantage against Crawford as he took a ball in each of the pitcher's first two pitches. He then took a strike on Crawford's third pitch, a cutter that was a little high in the zone. Crawford made a mistake of throwing another cutter that went to the middle of the strike zone and got taken deep for 473 feet by Ohtani, who added to his National League-leading home run total.
For what it's worth, Ohtani was just 0-for-4 in his career against Crawford prior to Sunday's game.
Ohtani now has 30 home runs on the season, the most in the NL thus far this season. Marcell Ozuna of the Atlanta Braves and Bryce Harper of the Philadelphia Phillies are at No. 2 and No. 3 with 28 and 22 home runs, respectively. Harper is also tied with Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman Christian Walker in terms of home run total.
Overall, Ohtani went 1-for-3 with a home run, walk, and just a strikeout in the win over the Red Sox.
James Paxton took the pitching win for Los Angeles, as he allowed three earned runs on four hits with seven strikeouts through five innings of work on the mound.
Ohtani, of course, is more than just about hitting bombs at the plate. He is batting .315 on the season with a .401 on-base percentage, and a .638 slugging percentage. His 1.038 OPS clears everyone in the National League, as no other NL player to date has a better OPS than .976 outside of the Japanese superstar.
And there is also this (via Inside Edge):
“Ohtani is slugging .707 against right-handed pitching this season, best in MLB. He holds a .704 (!) SLG against righties since the start of last season, best in MLB. Aaron Judge has the second highest SLG vs. RHP in that timeframe at .627.”
In other words, Ohtani is playing like he deserves every penny of all the money the Dodgers commited to him when they signed the former Los Angeles Angels two-way star to a staggering 10-year $700 million contract.
Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers continue to build lead atop the NL West standings
After struggling down the stretch of the first half of the season where they won just once through six games before the All-Star break, the Dodgers have seemingly managed to restore order, as they swept the Red Sox in a three-game series at Dodger Stadium.
With a 59-41 record, the Dodgers are ahead of their rivals in the NL West division by eight games.
After taking care of business versus the Red Sox, Ohtani and the Dodgers will host bitter rivals San Francisco Giants for a four-game series at home before another marquee series against the Houston Astros on the road.
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