ARLINGTON, Texas — In the third inning of Major League Baseball’s 94th All-Star Game on Tuesday night at Globe Life Field, Ohtani wowed the 39,343 in attendance the best way he knows how: smoking a no-doubt, 400-foot, three-run home run halfway up the right-field stands in the American League’s 5-3 win over the National League.
“At this point, it’s normal for him,” Dodgers teammate Teoscar Hernández said. “It’s Shohei being Shohei.”
The home run was Ohtani’s first in the Midsummer Classic, where he is now two for six with three walks in four appearances (he also has a win as a pitcher, making him the only player with both a win and a home run in the event).
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred should be concerned that the big-market Angels continue to struggle with no end in sight under Arte Moreno’s ownership.
It was the first All-Star Game homer by a Dodger since Mike Piazza in 1996, and only the second by a Japanese-born player after Ichiro Suzuki’s inside-the-park homer in 2007.
However, it also was the only scoring for the NL, and the AL denied Ohtani’s bid for most valuable player , which instead went to the Boston Red Sox’s Jarren Duran, a former Long Beach State and Cypress High standout who broke a 3-3 tie in the fifth inning with a two-run homer.
“I haven’t really hit well during the All-Star Game, so I’m just relieved that I put a good ball in play,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “I was really just focused on having a regular at-bat, as if I was in the regular season.”
Ohtani walked in the first inning before his blast opened the scoring in the third, coming on a 2-and-0 splitter from Boston right-hander Tanner Houck. Like everyone else in the ballpark, Ohtani began to admire the drive as soon as he hit it, leaning back in the batter’s box with a long gaze before flipping his bat and rounding the bases.
Dodgers teammates reacted in the dugout, as Freddie Freeman flung his arms in celebration while Tyler Glasnow’s jaw dropped.
As Ohtani came around third, he also put his arms in the air — doing the same hip-shaking, Dragon Ball Z-inspired celebration that accompanied the league-leading 29 homers he hit during the first half of the season.
“It felt inevitable he was going to do it,” Freeman said. “He steps in the box, and you kind of figure he would come through. Pretty awesome.”
The Dodgers had three other players in the game. A night after winning the Home Run Derby, Hernández started in center field and went 0 for 2. Catcher Will Smith entered in the sixth and recorded a single. But, in the next at-bat, Freeman came off the bench and grounded into a double play, stepping on the foot of Cleveland Guardians first baseman Josh Naylor for an awkward out that required a video review.
Glasnow, a first-time All-Star, watched from the dugout, unable to take the mound because of a back injury that landed him on the injured list. Glasnow has been throwing and expects to return next week.
As usual, none of them topped Ohtani’s exploits Tuesday night.
Houck said he was trying to throw a low splitter but left too much of it over the heart of the plate.
“Just a good swing,” he said. “The boys were going out there swinging today.”
Oakland Athletics closer Mason Miller, a flamethrowing 25-year-old rookie right-hander, had better luck against Ohtani in his last at-bat in the fifth inning, striking him out with a couple of 100-mph fastballs and a slider below the zone that Ohtani swung at and missed.
“I wasn’t giving him one up,” Miller told the Fox broadcast. “That’s for sure.”
When Ohtani met with reporters during the eighth inning, he was asked if he was rooting particularly hard for an NL comeback given his MVP candidacy (a player from the losing team hasn’t won All-Star Game MVP since Carl Yastrzemski in 1970).
“In an ideal world, yes,” he said with a chuckle.
Teoscar Hernández continues his resurgent season, edging Bobby Witt Jr. to become the first Dodgers player ever to win the MLB Home Run Derby.
Still, “it’s an honor just being here,” he added.
Indeed, even without any award hardware, Ohtani managed to once again be a main attraction on baseball’s biggest night of stars.
Missing glove
As Freeman dug through his locker in the NL’s visiting clubhouse hours before the game, he realized something was missing.
“Where’s my glove?” he asked, with a laugh. “I seriously don’t have a glove.”
Turns out, as he was packing at the end of the Dodgers’ series in Detroit on Sunday, Freeman’s first baseman’s glove was accidentally packed in the bag he sent back to Los Angeles.
A Little League-esque sequence ensued.
First, Freeman sought out NL starting first baseman Bryce Harper, knowing he and the Philadelphia Phillies star share Rawlings as an equipment sponsor.
Before first pitch, however, Freeman learned that New York Mets slugger Pete Alonso had an extra mitt with him in Texas.
“He was like, ‘Hey, I don’t a have a glove,’” Alonso chuckled. “I was like, ‘Well, that’s a problem. I have an extra one. Would you like to use one of mine?’”
They’re old friends from their days playing against each other in the NL East when Freeman played for Atlanta, and Alonso joked he didn’t charge him anything for the rental.
“Nah,” he said. “Just friendship dues. That’s it.”
Dad duty
When Hernández became the first Dodger to win the Home Run Derby on Monday night, there were a few teammates missing from the celebration.
While Glasnow stuck around to the end of Hernández’s dramatic win, the club’s three other All-Stars were gone by the end of the three-hour slugfest.
The reason, for Smith and Freeman at least?
They were on Dad duty, having brought their young children to Texas.
“I had to leave early,” joked Smith, whose daughter, Charlotte, is almost 2. “My daughter was not having it.”
The same went for Freeman, who was in town with his three sons, Charlie, Maximus and Brandon.
Hernández said he didn’t give his teammates a hard time, and that he hardly even noticed until seeing comments on social media wondering about their absences.
“At the end of the day, it was a good day,” he said. “I won. So that’s all that matters.”
During batting practice before the derby, Freeman’s oldest son, 7-year-old Charlie, received big ovations from the crowd as he raced after fly balls. In the clubhouse after Tuesday’s game, all three boys were climbing over their eight-time All-Star Dad.
“This is what makes it fun for me now,” Freeman said. “Obviously it’s still fun to play in All-Star Games. But when you have the joy of him coming and shagging balls and stuff like that, to see their faces, that’s what makes it fun.”
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