LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani made landfall beyond the right field pavilions at Dodger Stadium just after 5:30 p.m., and awe ensued. The Los Angeles Dodgers slugger’s power has long been the subject of myth and envy, and yet the damage he did on national television Sunday night was staggering nonetheless.
Ohtani’s 30th home run of his first season with the Dodgers might be his most impressive yet, as he annihilated a cutter down the middle from Boston Red Sox starter Kutter Crawford, stunning a national crowd that included his teammate, Clayton Kershaw, who said he was “speechless” in his live interview with ESPN.
“That was amazing,” Kershaw said. “Some of the righties can hit them out that way, but lefties…I’ve never seen that before…Good gracious, I don’t think I’ve seen a ball go that far before.”
The Dodgers smashed a season-best six home runs in Sunday’s 9-6 win, but afterwards, Ohtani’s feat was still all anyone could gush about.
“He just never ceases to amaze,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I mean, you look at how far that ball went and how hot it came off the bat, it’s just hard to fathom someone hitting a baseball like that…That’s just where people don’t go.”
“Just awe,” James Paxton said. “The way he hit that ball, we were all just kind of shocked looking up at it. He’s superhuman man, it was pretty fun to watch.”
“Nothing surprises me anymore with him,” Gavin Lux said. “It sounded like a shotgun off his bat.”
Few hitters have challenged this 62-year-old ballpark’s dimensions quite like this. Fernando Tatis Jr. bounced one off the roofs of the left-field pavilions and out. Giancarlo Stanton muscled one even further. Mark McGwire and Mike Piazza treated it like a long-drive contest.
Fewer have done so from the left-handed batter’s box. When Ohtani’s blast rocketed 116.7 mph off his bat and shot under the roof paneling in the pavilions in right center, it nearly put him in even rarer company. Willie Stargell is the only left-handed hitter ever to hit a ball completely out of the ballpark in its history, doing so twice.
Ohtani’s 473-foot blast almost joined him, flying over advertising but under the roof and into the path of an unsuspecting fan, John Kramer, while he was walking to get food in the center field plaza.
He still believes it’s possible. There’s been little reason to doubt him.
“That’s what I hope,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “I think I’m gonna have a lot more opportunities to do so. So definitely looking forward to one of those.”
It marked the farthest home run hit at Dodger Stadium since Stanton’s 475-foot blast in 2015. Ohtani’s seven home runs hit 450 feet or further this season are the most in the majors, according to Statcast.
Ohtani got all of it, he said, “and at a good angle.”