LOS ANGELES Just after 5:30 p.m., Shohei Ohtani touched down at Dodger Stadium, and there was a moment of amazement. Even while the Los Angeles Dodgers slugger’s power has long been the stuff of legend and jealousy, the damage he caused on national television on Sunday night was astounding.
Ohtani may have hit his most spectacular home run to date during his 30th home run of the Dodgers’ inaugural season. He destroyed a cutter down the middle from Boston Red Sox starter Kutter Crawford, leaving a stunned national audience, including Clayton Kershaw, who described himself as “speechless” during a 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.”
473 feet, Shohei Ohtani LITERALLY hits this one out of the park
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Even after the Dodgers defeated the Astros 9–6 on Sunday, with Ohtani smashing a season-high six home runs, nobody could stop talking about his accomplishment.
“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.”
The dimensions of this 62-year-old ballpark have rarely been tested by hitters quite like this. Fernando Tatis Jr. ricocheted one off the pavilion roofs in left field and out of the park. Giancarlo Stanton gave one more strength. Mike Piazza and Mark McGwire approached it like a long-drive competition.
From the left-handed batter’s box, fewer have done so. Ohtani almost joined even rarer company when his blast went under the roof panels in the right center pavilions at 116.7 mph off the bat. In the history of the ballpark, Willie Stargell is the only left-handed hitter to have hit a ball out of the park twice.
Ohtani’s 473-foot rocket nearly caught up to him, passing over advertisements but also going under the roof and straight into the path of John Kramer, an unwary fan who was making his way to the center field plaza to grab food.
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.”
The home run was the furthest hit at Dodger Stadium since Stanton’s 475-foot hammer back in 2015. According to Statcast, Ohtani has the most home runs in the big leagues this season with seven that have traveled 450 feet or more.
Ohtani got all of it, he said, “and at a good angle.”
(Photo: Gene Wang / Getty Images)
