Ohtani's top 10 home runs in MLB
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Unsurprisingly, Shohei Ohtani has lots of memorable home runs in the big leagues. Ohtani, who made history in his first season with the Dodgers after winning two American League Most Valuable Player awards with the Angels, has hit the 200-career-homer milestone -- and he's still going strong.
Here are the top 10 home runs from the two-way superstar's MLB career so far.
1) Sept. 19, 2024, vs. Marlins (off Mike Baumann)
Ohtani, already an owner of so many records and firsts in MLB history, added yet another when he smashed his 50th home run of the 2024 season against Baumann in Miami. It was the second of three homers he hit in the contest, and not only did he reach the 50-homer milestone, but he also stole his 50th and 51st bases of the year, becoming the first player to hit at least 50 homers and steal at least 50 bases in the same season. Overall, Ohtani went 6-for-6 in the game, also doubling twice and driving in a career-high 10 runs.
2) Aug. 23, 2024, vs. Rays (off Colin Poche)
In a year in which he's only hitting while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, Ohtani managed to still emerge as the NL MVP frontrunner with a chase for the elusive 40-40 season. The stage was set for Ohtani, who came up with the bases loaded and two outs in a tie game against Tampa Bay. Ohtani, who swiped his 40th base of the season earlier in the game, drove an 84.3 mph slider from lefty Poche 389 feet into the center-field seats for a walk-off grand slam. Ohtani became the sixth and fastest member to join the 40-40 club and also the first Dodger to accomplish the feat. Perhaps even more surprising, though? This was his first career walk-off homer.
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3) October 5, 2024, vs. Padres (off Dylan Cease)
He waited nearly seven years for the moment, and when it finally arrived, he delivered. In his first postseason game -- Game 1 of the 2024 NLDS vs. the Padres -- Ohtani smashed a laser over the wall in right field off Cease in the second inning for a game-tying, three-run homer at Dodger Stadium. It proved to be a critical swing, as the Dodgers went on to win that game, 7-5.
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4) April 4, 2021, vs. White Sox (off Dylan Cease)
It's the defining Ohtani home run. This was the game that started it all in Ohtani's MVP 2021 season -- he was hitting and pitching in the same game for the first time, he hit 100 mph three times in the top of the first inning as a pitcher, and then he came to bat in the bottom of the first and did this. A 115.2 mph, 451-foot monster home run off a 97 mph fastball from Dylan Cease. Ohtani is the only player in Statcast history to throw a pitch 100 mph and hit a ball 115 mph in the same game, let alone the same inning.
5) April 3, 2018, vs. Guardians (off Josh Tomlin)
There's no home run like your first one. It might be easy to forget how big of an unknown Ohtani was as he entered his first big league season. His legend preceded him as he jumped from Japan to the Majors, but his struggles in Spring Training raised questions about whether he'd be a star here. Ohtani started answering those questions immediately. Two days after winning his pitching debut on April 1, Ohtani belted his first home run as a hitter in his first home at-bat at Angel Stadium. That kicked off his Rookie of the Year campaign.
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6) June 30, 2023, vs. D-backs (off Tommy Henry)
Ohtani capped a scorching month of June with what would be the longest homer hit in the Majors in 2023 -- a 493-foot shot that landed near the LED ribbon located halfway up the outfield bleachers at Angel Stadium. It's his longest home run to date, and it's tied for the 13th-longest homer since Statcast was introduced in 2015. The epic drive also surpassed Mike Trout's 490-footer on Oct. 5, 2022, for the longest home run by an Angel.
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7) April 21, 2024, vs. Mets (off Adrian Houser)
Ohtani's 176th career home run was significant, as the slugger passed Hideki Matsui for the most MLB home runs by a Japanese-born player. Given that Ohtani accomplished this in his age-29 season, he's assuredly going to blow way past this number to put him at the top of the list comfortably. Ohtani's fifth home run in a Dodgers uniform left his bat at 110 mph and traveled 423 feet into the right-field pavilion at Dodger Stadium.
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8) April 23, 2024, vs. Nationals (off Matt Barnes)
Ohtani, at the time of this shot, already held the Angels team record for the hardest-hit home run since Statcast began tracking in 2015 (118.0 mph, on June 25, 2022 against the Mariners' Logan Gilbert). With this 118.7 mph, 450-foot beauty against the Nationals, he set a new Dodgers team record as well, far surpassing the 115.6 mph home run hit by Manny Machado in Game 1 of the 2018 NLCS against the Brewers.
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9) July 27, 2023, vs. Tigers (off Matt Manning)
A multi-homer game is impressive enough, but when you consider Ohtani threw a one-hit shutout in Game 1 of a doubleheader before clubbing two homers in the nightcap, you could argue the two-way marvel put up one of the best performances ever by an MLB player in one day. His first long ball was a 383-foot opposite-field shot in the second inning that came a little over an hour after he threw his final pitch. His second homer -- a 435-foot no-doubter -- was a 116.9 mph laser in the fourth inning that sealed his day for the ages.
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10) July 7, 2021, vs. Red Sox (off Eduardo Rodriguez)
Hideki Matsui's 31 home runs in 2004 stood as the single-season record for a Japanese player in MLB for 16 years. In 2021, Ohtani smashed through it. The record-setting home run No. 32 came against the Red Sox at Angel Stadium just before the All-Star break, and it was a rocket: 114.5 mph off the bat and 433 feet to right field. Ohtani surpassing Godzilla was a major achievement, considering Matsui's iconic stature among Japanese-born baseball players.
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Honorable mentions:
May 16, 2021, vs. Red Sox (off Matt Barnes)
Ohtani's most clutch home run to date. The Angels were down to their last out at Fenway Park, trailing 5-4 in the top of the ninth, when Ohtani turned on a 97 mph fastball from Barnes and hooked it just fair inside Pesky's Pole down the right-field line for a go-ahead two-run homer. The Angels completed the comeback win, 6-5.
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June 27, 2023, vs. White Sox (off Michael Kopech and Touki Toussaint)
Baseball is a team sport ... unless you have Ohtani on your team. There's arguably no player in the game who can make quite as much impact, and every bit of his full potential was on full display as he struck out 10 White Sox over 6 1/3 strong innings and also went 3-for-3 with two home runs at the plate. After Ohtani kicked off the game with a tone-setting 418-foot shot in the first (followed by a communal high-five to conserve energy), he capped his night with a 404-foot homer in the seventh to cushion the Halos' lead.
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Sept. 5, 2018, vs. Rangers (off Austin Bibens-Dirkx)
This home run is a perfect representation of just how unique of a player Ohtani is. It happened the very same day the Angels announced that Ohtani needed Tommy John surgery and shut him down as a pitcher for the remainder of his rookie year. For anyone else, it would have been the end of the season, period. But Ohtani is one of a kind. For him, it just meant he could play the game as the DH a few hours later and crush not one, but two home runs. This one, the first one, was a 107.3 mph, 45-degree moonshot -- the highest home run Ohtani has hit in his big league career. He had four hits in the game, including the two homers.
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April 3, 2024, vs. Giants (off Taylor Rogers)
While it took Ohtani nine games to record his first Dodgers home run, he made it memorable. Against the division-rival Giants at Dodger Stadium, Ohtani launched his first Dodgers home run 430 feet -- it traveled halfway up the right-field bleachers. This began a torrid stretch that saw Ohtani produce like the vaunted slugger he is in the following weeks.
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June 5, 2024, vs. Pirates (off Paul Skenes)
Skenes got the better of Ohtani in their first-ever matchup, but the Dodgers slugger got the last laugh against the Pirates phenom. Ohtani struck out on three fastballs (including a 100.8 mph heater for strike three) in the first inning but worked the count full in the third before doing some damage. On a 100.1 mph fastball, Ohtani crushed a two-run homer 415 feet over the center-field fence. Not many hitters have found success against Skenes, but Ohtani is (as usual) an exception.
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Aug. 18, 2021, vs. Tigers (off José Cisnero)
Ohtani getting to the 40-home run milestone was an incredible achievement when you combine it with all the other round numbers he hit in 2021: 40 homers, 25 steals, 100 RBIs, 150 pitching strikeouts. There's never been a season like it in baseball history. Home run No. 40 was a 110.1 mph, 430-foot shot to deep right field at Comerica Park.
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May 9, 2022, vs. Rays (off Calvin Faucher)
As great as he was in his MVP season in 2021, as great as he was in his Rookie of the Year season in 2018, as great as he was in Japan, Ohtani had never done one thing in his professional baseball career: hit a grand slam. He finally checked that box in 2022 with an opposite-field slam against the Rays at the Big A. It was his first grand slam in either MLB or Nippon Professional Baseball, as he never hit one in his five seasons with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.
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March 14, 2022 vs. A's (off Adam Oller)
The first major career home run milestone is No. 100, and Ohtani reached it in an Angels rout of the A's at the Oakland Coliseum. He became the third Japanese player to hit 100 home runs in the Major Leagues, after Matsui (175) and Ichiro (117), and just the second player in Major League history with 100 home runs as a hitter and 250 strikeouts as a pitcher, along with Babe Ruth. "One hundred is a big number and I'm proud of it," Ohtani said after the game, but added: "I'm planning on hitting more."
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