Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani is not pitching in the 2024 MLB season, but that doesn't mean he's not out there blowing people's minds away. Just take for example the absolute monster of a home run he hit into the stratosphere during Tuesday's 4-1 win on the road in the series opener against the Washington Nationals.
After taking a ball from Nationals veteran reliever Matt Barnes at the top of the ninth, Ohtani turned it on in the next pitch he saw, as he crushed the ball so hard, that people in Japan might have heard the sound of his bat punishing the 85 MPH splitter. And speaking of speed, that home run was recorded at 118.7 mph. It was the hardest-hit ball not just of Ohtani's career to date but of any Dodgers player since 2015 at least, according to Sarah Langes of MLB.com.
“Shohei Ohtani’s 118.7 mph HR is the Dodgers’ hardest-hit batted ball tracked by Statcast (2015)…he also has No. 3 on the list with his 115.8 mph double on 3/31, behind only a 116.0 mph groundout from Yasiel Puig on 4/4/17 at No. 2…so he has their 2 hardest base hits…he’s played 25 games as a Dodger.”
Even Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was left astonished by Ohtani's blast.
“There’s only a few guys that can hit a ball like that,” Roberts said, per the Associated Press (h/t ESPN). “It was a topspin liner that reached the second deck. There’s not too many guys that can do that. Shohei, we’ve talked about controlling the strike zone. When he does that, it is hard to get him out. It’s lightning in that bat. Any time he swings the bat and makes contact, he can change the game.”
Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani reacts to huge home run in win vs. Nationals
When asked about his thoughts on his home run against the Nationals, Ohtani said: “I thought I hit it really good and I felt really good about it,” per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register, who also noted that the Japanese superstar “has the most batted balls with exit velocity of 95 mph or higher (50).”
Despite the controversies he went through earlier in the season in relation to his translator's betting activities, Ohtani seems to have put all those behind him. It's amazing how Ohtani is able to keep his focus amid all the outside noise. Just 25 games into his career with Los Angeles, Ohtani has already shown why the Dodgers committed all that money to him in the offseason. So far in the 2024 MLB season, Ohtani is leading the big leagues with a .364 batting average to go with a .430 OBP and a .677 slugging percentage. He has six home runs and 14 RBIs plus 13 walks at the time of this writing.
The Dodgers are not having the kind of start to the season that many expected them to have given their loaded roster, as entered Wednesday with just a 14-11 record. However, that's not going to diminish the excellent play at the plate of Ohtani to date. It is also still too early to make a judgment on the Dodgers, who could get hot and start winning games in bunches sooner than later after winning the last leg of a three-game series against the New York Mets last Sunday and the first of a three-game set versus the Nationals.
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