Shohei Ohtani wasn’t capable of take part on this week’s Residence Run Derby. However the Dodgers slugger didn’t depart All-Star week in Texas with out a memorable huge fly.
Within the third inning of Main League Baseball’s 94th All-Star Recreation on Tuesday night time at Globe Life Discipline, Ohtani wowed the 39,343-person crowd one of the simplest ways he is aware of how: smoking a no-doubt, 400-foot house run midway up the right-field stands within the American League’s eventual 5-3 win over the Nationwide League.
“At this level, it’s regular for him,” teammate Teoscar Hernández stated. “It’s Shohei being Shohei.”
The blast was Ohtani’s first house run within the Midsummer Traditional, the place he’s now two for six with three walks in 4 appearances (he additionally has a win as a pitcher, making him the one participant in MLB historical past with each a house run and win within the occasion).
It was the primary All-Star Recreation homer by a Dodgers participant since Mike Piazza in 1996, and solely the second by a Japanese-born participant after Ichiro Suzuki’s inside-the-park house run within the 2007 sport.
Nonetheless, it was additionally the one scoring for the NL on Tuesday, denying Ohtani potential most beneficial participant honors that as an alternative went to the Boston Crimson Sox’s Jarren Durran, a former Lengthy Seashore State and Cypress Excessive standout, who broke a 3-3 tie within the fifth inning with a two-run homer.
“Usually, I haven’t actually hit nicely in the course of the All-Star Recreation, so I’m simply relieved that I put an excellent ball in play,” Ohtani, who additionally had a first-inning stroll, stated by means of interpreter Will Ireton. “I used to be actually simply centered on having an everyday at-bat, as if I used to be within the common season.”
Ohtani’s blast opened the scoring Tuesday night time, approaching a 2-and-0 splitter from Boston Crimson Sox right-hander Tanner Houck. Like everybody else within the ballpark, Ohtani started to admire the drive as quickly as he hit it, leaning again within the batter’s field with a protracted gaze earlier than flipping his bat and rounding the bases.
From the dugout, Dodgers teammate Freddie Freeman flung his arms in celebration, whereas Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow’s jaw dropped.
As Ohtani got here round third, he additionally put his arms within the air — doing the identical hip-shaking, Dragon Ball Z-inspired lengthy ball celebration that accompanied the NL-leading 29 homers he hit for the Dodgers in the course of the first half of the season.
“It felt inevitable he was going to do it,” Freeman stated. “He steps within the field, and also you type of determine he would come by means of. Fairly superior.”
The Dodgers had three different gamers in Tuesday’s All-Star Recreation. An evening after successful the Residence Run Derby, Hernández began in heart subject however went 0 for two. Catcher Will Smith entered the sport within the sixth inning and recorded a single. However, within the subsequent at-bat, Freeman got here off the bench and grounded right into a double play, stepping on the foot of Cleveland Guardians first baseman Josh Naylor for an ungainly out that required a video evaluate.
Glasnow, a first-time All-Star, watched the sport from the dugout, unable to take the mound due to a again damage that landed him on the injured checklist. Glasnow has been throwing this week, and expects to return from the IL when eligible subsequent week.
However as standard, nobody topped Ohtani’s exploits Tuesday night time.
Houck stated he was making an attempt to throw a low splitter to Ohtani, however left an excessive amount of of it over the guts of the plate.
“Only a good swing,” he stated. “The boys had been going on the market swinging right now.”
Oakland Athletics nearer Mason Miller, a flame-throwing 25-year-old rookie right-hander, had higher luck in opposition to Ohtani in his final at-bat within the fifth inning, hanging him out with a few 100-mph fastballs and a swing-and-miss slider beneath the zone.
“I wasn’t giving him one up,” Miller instructed the Fox broadcast. “That’s for certain.”
When Ohtani met with reporters in the course of the eighth inning, he was requested if he was rooting significantly laborious for an NL comeback given his MVP candidacy (a participant from the shedding staff hasn’t gained All-Star Recreation MVP since Carl Yastrzemski in 1970).
“In a super world, sure,” he stated with a chuckle.
Nonetheless, “it’s an honor simply being right here,” he added.
Certainly, even with none award-winning {hardware}, Ohtani managed to as soon as once more be a principal attraction on baseball’s largest night time of stars.
Lacking glove
As Freeman dug by means of his locker within the NL’s visiting clubhouse a number of hours earlier than the sport, he realized one thing was lacking.
“The place’s my glove?” he requested out loud, with fun. “I significantly don’t have a glove.”
Seems, as he was packing up his stuff on the finish of the Dodgers’ collection in Detroit on Sunday, Freeman’s first baseman’s glove was unintentionally packed within the bag he despatched again to Los Angeles.
A Little League-esque sequence ensued.
First, Freeman sought out NL beginning first baseman Bryce Harper, understanding he and the Philadelphia Phillies star share Rawlings as an gear sponsor.
Earlier than first pitch, nonetheless, Freeman discovered that New York Mets slugger Pete Alonso had an additional mitt with him in Texas.
“He was like, ‘Hey, I don’t a have a glove,’” Alonso chuckled. “I used to be like, ‘Nicely, that’s an issue. I’ve an additional one. Would you want to make use of considered one of mine?’”
Previous pals from their days taking part in in opposition to one another within the NL East when Freeman performed for Atlanta, Alonso joked he didn’t cost Freeman something for the rental, both.
“Nah,” he stated. “Simply friendship dues. That’s it.”
Dad responsibility
When Hernández grew to become the primary Dodgers participant to win the Residence Run Derby on Monday night time, there have been a number of present Dodgers who had been lacking from the celebration.
Whereas Glasnow caught round to the top of Hernández’s dramatic win, the membership’s three different All-Star hitters had been all passed by the top of the three-hour slugfest.
The rationale, for Smith and Freeman not less than?
They had been on Dad responsibility, having introduced their younger kids with them to Texas this week.
“I needed to depart early,” joked Smith, whose daughter Charlotte is nearly 2. “My daughter was not having it.”
The identical went for Freeman, who was on the town together with his three sons, Charlie, Maximus, and Brandon.
Hernández stated he didn’t give his lineup-mates a tough time, joking he hardly even observed till seeing social media customers questioning about their absences Tuesday.
“On the finish of the day, it was an excellent day,” he stated. “I gained. In order that’s all that issues.”
Throughout batting apply earlier than Monday’s Derby, Freeman’s oldest son, 7-year-old Charlie, acquired huge ovations from the group as he raced after fly balls.
Within the visiting clubhouse after Tuesday’s All-Star Recreation, all three boys had been climbing over their eight-time All-Star of a dad.
“That is what makes it enjoyable for me now,” Freeman stated. “Clearly it’s nonetheless enjoyable to play in All-Star Video games. However when you could have the enjoyment of him coming and shagging balls and stuff like that. To see their faces, that’s what makes it enjoyable.”