Shohei Ohtani missed out on this week’s Home Run Derby. But the Dodgers slugger didn’t leave All-Star week in Texas without a memorable hit.
In the third inning of the 94th Major League Baseball All-Star Game on Tuesday night at Globe Life Field, Ohtani wowed the crowd of 39,343 in the best way he knows how: by hitting a 400-foot home run halfway up the right-field bleachers in the American League’s 5-3 victory over the National League.
“At this point, it’s normal for him,” teammate Teoscar Hernandez said. “It’s Shohei being Shohei.”
The home run was Ohtani’s first home run of the Midsummer Classic, where he is now 2-for-6 with three walks in four appearances (he also has a win as a pitcher, making him the only player in MLB history with both a home run and a win in the event).
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It was the first All-Star home run by a Dodgers player since Mike Piazza in 1996, and only the second by a player of Japanese descent after Ichiro Suzuki’s inside-the-field home run in the 2007 game.
However, it was also the NL’s only score on Tuesday, denying Ohtani potential most valuable player honors that instead went to the Boston Red Sox’ Jarren Durran, a former Long Beach State and Cypress High standout who broke a 3-3 tie in the fifth inning with a two-run home run.
“I didn’t hit really well in the All-Star game in general, so I’m just relieved to have a good ball in play,” Ohtani, who also drew a first-inning walk, said through interpreter Will Ireton. “I was really focused on getting a consistent at-bat, like I would in the regular season.”
Ohtani’s hit opened the scoring Tuesday night, on a pitch by Boston Red Sox right-hander Tanner Houck that made it a 2-0 split. Like everyone else in the stadium, Ohtani began admiring the hit as soon as he hit it, leaning back in the batter’s box with a long look before flipping his bat and circling the bases.
From the dugout, Dodgers teammate Freddie Freeman raised his arms in celebration, while Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow’s jaw dropped.
As Ohtani reached third, he also threw his arms up in the air, doing the same Dragon Ball Z-inspired, hip-swaying long-ball celebration that accompanied the 29 home runs he hit for the Dodgers in the first half of the season, a National League high.
“It seemed inevitable that he would do it,” Freeman said. “He comes into the box and you think he’s going to get it. It’s pretty impressive.”
The Dodgers had three other players in Tuesday’s All-Star Game. A night after winning the home run contest, Hernández started in center field but went hitless in two innings. Catcher Will Smith entered the game in the sixth inning and singled. But in the next at-bat, Freeman came off the bench and hit a grounder into a double play, stepping on the foot of Cleveland Guardians first baseman Josh Naylor for an awkward putout that required a video review.
Glasnow, who was named to his first All-Star game, watched the game from the dugout, unable to get on the mound because of a back injury that put him on the injured list. Glasnow pitched this week and hopes to return from the injured list next week when he is eligible.
But as usual, no one topped Ohtani’s exploits Tuesday night.
Houck said he tried to throw a low splitter to Ohtani, but left it too high over the heart of the plate.
“It was a good swing,” he said. “The boys had some swing today.”
Oakland Athletics relief pitcher Mason Miller, a 25-year-old right-hander with a fiery pitching talent, had better luck against Ohtani in his final at-bat in the fifth inning, striking him out with a pair of 100-mph fastballs and a swing-and-miss slider below the zone.
“I didn’t give him one,” Miller said on Fox’s show. “That’s for sure.”
When Ohtani met with reporters in the eighth inning, he was asked if he was particularly hopeful about a return to the National League given his MVP candidacy (a player from the losing team hasn’t won the All-Star Game MVP award since Carl Yastrzemski in 1970).
“In an ideal world, yes,” he said with a laugh.
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“It is nevertheless an honour to be here,” he added.
Indeed, even without any award-winning hardware, Ohtani managed to once again be a main attraction on baseball’s biggest night for stars.
Missing glove
As Freeman rummaged through his locker in the National League visitors’ locker room hours before the game, he realized something was missing.
“Where’s my glove?” he asked out loud, laughing. “I really don’t have a glove.”
It turns out that while he was packing up his belongings at the end of the Dodgers’ series in Detroit on Sunday, Freeman’s first baseman’s glove was accidentally packed in the bag he was sending back to Los Angeles.
A Little League sequence ensues.
First, Freeman sought out National League starting first baseman Bryce Harper, knowing that he and the Philadelphia Phillies star share Rawlings as an equipment sponsor.
However, before the first pitch, Freeman learned that New York Mets slugger Pete Alonso had an extra glove with him in Texas.
“He said, ‘Hey, I don’t have any gloves,’” Alonso laughed. “I said, ‘Well, that’s a problem. I have one too many. Do you want to use one of mine?’”
Old friends from their days playing against each other in the NL East when Freeman was playing for Atlanta, Alonso joked that he didn’t charge Freeman anything for the rental, either.
“No,” he said. “It’s just a friendship fee. That’s all.”
The Father’s Duty
When Hernandez became the first Dodgers player to win the Home Run Derby on Monday night, a few current Dodgers were missing from the celebration.
While Glasnow persisted through the end of Hernandez’s dramatic victory, the club’s three other All-Star hitters were all gone by the end of the three-hour slugging match.
The reason, for Smith and Freeman at least?
They were on a mission to care for their fathers, having brought their young children with them to Texas this week.
“I had to leave early,” joked Smith, whose daughter Charlotte is almost 2. “My daughter didn’t want it.”
So did Freeman, who was in town with his three sons, Charlie, Maximus and Brandon.
Hernandez said he didn’t give his teammates a hard time, joking that he barely noticed until social media users questioned their absences Tuesday.
“In the end, it was a good day,” he said. “I won. That’s all that matters.”
During batting practice before Monday’s Derby, Freeman’s oldest son, Charlie, 7, received loud cheers from the crowd as he chased down fly balls.
In the visitors’ locker room after Tuesday’s All-Star Game, all three boys climbed on top of their father, an eight-time All-Star.
“That’s what makes it fun for me now,” Freeman said. “Obviously, it’s always fun to play in the All-Star games. But when you have the joy of seeing him come out and hitting balls and stuff like that. Seeing their faces, that’s what makes it fun.”
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This article was originally published in the Los Angeles Times.