The Los Angeles received six home runs in their 9-6 win over the Boston Red Sox on Sunday, including a mammoth of a blast from Shohei Ohtani.
The two-time MVP hit his National League-leading 30th home run of the season in the fifth inning that cleared the right-center pavilion and just missed going out of Dodger Stadium entirely.
Ohtani’s moonshot left his bat at 116.7 mph and traveled 473 feet, which was the longest home run at Dodger Stadium since Giancarlo Stanton’s 475-foot blast on May 12, 2015.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was blown away by Ohtani’s historic home run, via Doug Padilla of the Southern California News Group:
“It’s just hard to fathom someone hitting a baseball like that,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He did say he got all of it. That’s just where people don’t go. Just really impressive. He does things, it seems like every night, that people just can’t do and I’m happy he’s wearing a Dodger uniform.”
Lux was less surprised by Ohtani’s home run, only because he has become accustomed to watching him do special things:
“Nothing surprises me anymore with him,” Lux said of Ohtani. “It sounded like a shotgun off his bat. He’s a special player. All around, all sides of the ball. I’m looking forward to seeing him pitch next year too. Yeah, he’s special.”
Austin Barnes, who hit his first home run of the season in the previous at-bat, was putting his catching equipment back on when Ohtani went deep:
“I was starting to sit down thinking about (the next inning) and then boom,” Barnes said. “Shohei is unbelievable. I usually don’t miss any of his at-bats because it’s fun to watch.”
Ohtani now has a Major League-leading seven home runs of at least 450 feet this season. Earlier this year, he tied Joc Pederson for most 440-plus foot homers in Dodger Stadium under the Statcast Era (since 2015) with four.
Shohei Ohtani Statcast records
Ohtani broke another tie with Pederson for the Dodgers record of most home runs of at least 440 feet in a single season with eight, also since Statcast data tracking began.
Moreover, Ohtani is the only player in MLB history with multiple home runs of at least 450 feet at Dodger Stadium in the Statcast Era as well.
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