Baseball genius Shohei Ohtani (L.A. Dodgers) is showing off his strength every day. This time, he has made countless history by driving distance.
Ohtani started the 2024 Major League Colorado Rockies away match at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado on the 19th (Korea time) and scored two hits (one home run) and two RBIs and two runs in five times at bat.
He had elbow surgery last year and would not be able to take the mound in the 2024 season. When he took the surgery stage, multiple U.S. media outlets speculated that Ohtani, who became an FA (free agent), could not afford to sign a big contract due to surgery. Of course, he has excellent value as a batter, but his true charm comes from the “diffusion flow.” However, all these predictions were beautifully wrong.
Ohtani received attention from virtually all 30 major league teams right after the start of the stove league. Rather, it was strange that he did not pay attention to Ohtani. Finally, John Morosi of the “MLB Network” made the “record” misinformation that Ohtani had boarded a plane to Canada to sign with the Toronto Blue Jays. As a result, Ohtani signed a 10-year, 700 million-dollar contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the largest in the history of professional sports in the world.
Ohtani, who had raised expectations for himself, who was only focusing on batters by swinging his bat in the exhibition game, played in six games during the month of March and had a good start with a seven-hit batting average of 0.269 OPS of 0.656, but no hit appeared to come out even after the schedule began in April. As a result, Ohtani broke the frustrating trend when he finally hit the long-awaited first home run in the final game of the three-game series against the San Francisco Giants on April 4.
Since then, Ohtani’s bat has been on fire. During the month of April, Ohtani had 37 hits, seven homers, 17 RBIs, 21 runs scored, and a batting average of 0.352 OPS of 1.106. And the good trend continued in May, with 29 hits, seven homers, 19 RBIs, 16 runs scored, and eight steals, and a batting average of 0.312 OPS of 0.976. It was a moment when we could instantly check what kind of performance Ohtani, dubbed a “baseball genius,” could perform when he focused only on batters. However, from June, Ohtani started to lose touch. In particular, production of long hitters seemed to have declined significantly.
However, his slump did not last long. Ohtani hit two consecutive home runs against the Texas Rangers on the 12th and 13th, and displayed multiple home runs against the Kansas City Royals on the 17th. Ohtani will play as a leadoff starting on the 18th due to the broken left hand of MVP Mookie Betts, who had three hits, one RBI, two runs scored, walked one and stole one base in the first game of his change of batting order, and on the day, he exploded his 20th arch, tying for first in home runs in the National League.
It was in the sixth inning that Ohtani’s bat fired up. Coming out as a leadoff hitter in the top of the sixth inning, when his team was losing 2-7, Ohtani faced off against Colorado starter Austin Gomber, who had failed to produce a hit in the previous two at-bats. Ohtani seemed to have trouble hitting Gomber’s slider, but it was different this time. When Gomber threw his third pitch, which was 83.9 miles (135 kilometers), Ohtani turned his bat without hesitation. Measuring 113 miles (111.9 kilometers), the batting speed extended like a bullet, leading to a mega home run of 476 feet (145.1 meters).
This homerun has led to numerous records. Ohtani is now tying for first in home runs in the National League based on his homerun off Gomber. He has also hit 20 home runs for four consecutive years, the first Japanese major leaguer to do so. According to Sarah Reims of MLB.com , the 476-foot homer became No. 1 in the 스포츠토토 Major League this season, followed by the 493-foot homerun he hit against Tommy Henry of the Arizona Diamondbacks on July 1 last year.
In particular, Ohtani hit four home runs this year, which was the Dodgers’ tie record since Statcast was introduced in 2015, and the team’s sixth home run with 440 feet or higher was the third since 2015. What’s more surprising is that June is not over yet. It seems that it will be only a matter of time before Ohtani, who has hit tremendous hits every time, sets a new record for the Dodgers.
Along with Ohtani’s record, the Dodgers’ game on Wednesday was a historic day. The Dodgers was trailing 4-9 until the offense began in the top of the ninth inning, and based on Jason Heyward’s grand slam and Teoscar Hernandez’s upset three-run homerun, the Dodgers scored as many as seven runs in the ninth inning alone to secure a thrilling upset victory. This has led to the 95th anniversary of the game against the New York Giants on June 26, 1929.
