Shohei Ohtani has picked up where he left off before the All-Star break.
Three games post-break, the NL home run leader added to his tally with one of the loudest shots of the MLB season.
With the Los Angeles Dodgers leading the Red Sox, 5-2 on Sunday, Boston starter Kutter Crawford delivered an 86 mph cutter squarely over the middle of the plate. Ohtani made him pay.
Ohtani launched the offering deep over the right field wall for a no-doubt solo home run to extend the Dodgers lead to 6-2 in a 9-6 Los Angeles win.
The win secured a three-game series sweep for the Dodgers, who limped into the All-Star break with one win in their seven previous games. The Red Sox, meanwhile, were red-hot before being swept, with 10 wins in their previous 13 outings.
The home run was Ohtani’s 30th of the season. When it landed 473 feet later, the ball had cleared the right-field bleachers and passed under an awning into a plaza beyond the stands. The blast with an exit velocity of 116.7 mph is tied for the third-longest of the MLB season. It’s arguably the most impressive.
The two that were longer were hit in the mile-high air of Denver’s Coors Field. Ohtani claims one of those, as well — a 476-foot home run that until Sunday was the longest of the season. Giants slugger Jorge Soler hit a 478-foot shot earlier Sunday at Coors Field that now stands as the longest of the season.
But Ohtani’s 473-footer on Sunday took place at a mere 500-plus feet above sea level in East LA and is one of the longest in the history of a stadium that’s notoriously stingy for allowing deep shots.
Dodger Stadium has had 15 450+ ft HR under Statcast (2015), 2nd-fewest of any current MLB park in that span (Petco, 12)
Shohei Ohtani is the only player with multiple of those. he has FIVE
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) July 22, 2024
It’s not the longest. That honor belongs to Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Famer Willie Stargell, who launched a 1969 home run an estimated 506 1/2 feet into the parking lot beyond the right-field bleachers.
It is the second longest of the statcast era that started using advanced metrics to track ball flight in 2015. Giancarlo Stanton hit a 475-foot shot at Dodger Stadium in 2015.
And it’s a testament to Ohtani’s sensational first season with the Dodgers that has him on track as the odds-on favorite to win his third MVP trophy in his seventh MLB season.
Source Agencies
