“I had no choice but to hand over the home run ball”
Shohei Ohtani had his best day of the season with two hits (one home run) and two RBIs and two runs in four at-bats against the San Francisco Giants in 2024 Major League Baseball at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California, on the 4th (Korea time).
Having failed to take the mound in the 2024 season due to elbow surgery last year, Ohtani was a hot potato in the FA market this winter. Regardless of his team’s capitalism, Ohtani received attention from all major league teams, and every move was at the center of the spotlight from local media in the U.S. Notably, there were even “misinformation” while the destination was decided. It was said that Ohtani boarded a plane to Canada to sign a contract with the Toronto Blue Jays.
However, Ohtani’s ultimate destination was the Dodgers. The Dodgers offered Ohtani a 10-year contract worth 700 million U.S. dollars, which was unprecedented in the world’s professional sports history, and finally succeeded in winning Ohtani’s heart. As he finished the season early last year and got on the surgery stage, Ohtani scheduled his rehabilitation for the exhibition game, and although his debut game was delayed a little, he showed off his batting performance with a two-homer batting average of 0.500 OPS of 1.486 before participating in the Seoul Series.
Ohtani was silent with no hits in five at-bats against Kiwoom Heroes-Team Korea in a special game ahead of the Seoul Series, but Ohtani changed after the main game began. He showed off his presence with two hits, an RBI and a steal in five at-bats in the opener against the San Diego Padres. And despite the shock that interpreter Mizuhara Ifei was fired by the Dodgers for illegal sports gambling the next day, Ohtani continued his good trend with consecutive hits.
Ohtani remained silent with no hits in the remaining exhibition games after the Seoul Series. However, shortly after the opening game in the U.S. mainland began again, Ohtani continued his good trend, scoring two hits, one walk and one run against the St. Louis Cardinals. The problem here was that there was no long hit, which is considered Ohtani’s biggest advantage. Except for this season, Ohtani’s longest absence of a home run since the opening was 37 at-bats, but he did not draw an arch for exactly 37 at-bats until the San Francisco Giants match on the 3rd. 여우알바
Ohtani failed to hit a home run in his first at-bat on Saturday, setting a new record of no home run for the longest period since the season’s opening. However, he was not silent at the end. In his fourth at-bat in the bottom of the seventh inning, when his team was slightly ahead 4-3, Ohtani swung his bat relentlessly as a sinker of 93.2 miles (150 kilometers) was formed into a high course in the strike zone outside San Francisco’s new pitcher Taylor Rogers. As soon as he got hit, he felt that it was a home run.
Ohtani’s homerun flew 430 feet (131 meters) at the speed of 105.6 miles (169.9 kilometers) and was the first to cross the right fence. It was his first homerun in 224 days since his showdown with the Cincinnati Reds on August 23 last year, and he scored his fifth homerun for the Dodgers. With this homer, Ohtani made history by tying with five runs in nine consecutive games when he was playing for the Brooklyn Grace in 1887. What he created and what he saw through this opportunity was like a script for a drama.