Shohei Ohtani and his wife, Mamiko Tanaka, welcomed their first child earlier this month, and after a slow start upon his return to the Los Angeles Dodgers, the two-way superstar has been back to his usual self at the plate recently.
Some of those early struggles may have been due to Ohtani adjusting his schedule as a new father.
“A little change in the routine in terms of, for example, today I went to the hospital and came straight to the field,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton after Tuesday’s game.
“Just being here at home is nice to be able to spend time. But on the road, it’s going to be a little bit of a challenge, since I won’t be here.”
Ohtani, who has a reputation for sleeping upwards of 12 hours each night, has been getting less sleep these days but is thankful for the health of his family.
“I’m just grateful for a safe delivery, and I’m glad that even though I couldn’t sleep as much as I wanted to, it’s a good kind of not getting enough sleep situation,” Ohtani said.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts previously said that he felt Ohtani’s new attributes of being a father would translate to even more success on the baseball field.
Shohei Ohtani hits first home run since becoming father
Ohtani has been on a tear over the last week as he is 7-for-his-last-15 with three doubles, one triple and a home run entering play Wednesday.
Ohtani led off Tuesday’s game against the Miami Marlins with a solo shot, his first since becoming a father.
“It was a good home run to get back on the board for this game,” Ohtani said. “I haven’t hit one since being a father, so it’s a really nice one to be able to do that.”
Roberts believes Ohtani’s home run helped spark the Dodgers offense in their 15-2 blowout win over the Marlins. “It’s a big tone-setter,” Roberts began.
“I think we feed off of Shohei, certainly at the top of the order, and for him to make it a one-run ball game after the first pitch their starter throws, certainly gets some life into our offense, and we just took it from there.
“But when he’s going, you can see our offense sort of follows suit.”
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