In Major League Baseball, Ohtani Shohei of the Los Angeles Dodgers has hit 20 home runs for the fifth consecutive season.
Facing the Cleveland Guardians on Tuesday, Ohtani aimed for a leadoff homer for the third straight game.
He struck out in his first at-bat. But in his third at-bat in the top of the fourth, with two outs and a runner on first, he slammed the first pitch, a cutter, into the left-field stands.
He became the first Major Leaguer to reach the 20-homer mark this season.
Ohtani had two RBIs in this game and raised his batting average to .296.
The home run was also his 13th in May, bringing him close to his personal record of 15 in one month. If he maintains his current pace, he will likely hit 58 homers this season.
Ohtani’s 20th home run came off Guardians starter Tanner Bibee. The outside cutter cleared the roughly 5.8-meter-high left-field fence in a high arc. The ball traveled 110.3 meters.
The left-field fence at Progressive Field, the Guardians’ home stadium, is higher than the fences in the right and center.
It’s nicknamed the “Little Green Monster” after the “Green Monster” — the 11-meter-plus left-field fence at Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Sox.
In the 80 games at Progressive Field last season, only two home runs were hit into the left-field stands by left-handed batters.
Bibee looked stunned after Ohtani’s homer. He later said: “I think a lot of people thought it was a popup. I mean, I did, too. I thought I was out of the inning. Not a lot of lefty hitters can go to the opposite field at our park.”
Dodgers teammate Max Muncy admitted he felt a bit of jealousy. He said Ohtani “basically mishits a fly ball today and it still goes out.” Muncy added that Ohtani does “stuff that no normal human being can do.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “It was just one of those balls that when he hit it, it just kept going like a helium ball.”
Roberts noted that Ohtani and New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge have “a lot more margin for error” than other players.
