LOS ANGELES — A.J. Minter, a lefty reliever who has made a living taming the game’s most menacing left-handed sluggers, threw a 94-mph fastball right down the middle to Shohei Ohtani in Sunday’s eighth inning and paid a heavy price. What followed was one of the most prodigious home runs of Ohtani’s career — a 111-mph, 464-foot drive into the deepest portion of center field at Dodger Stadium.
It was Ohtani’s second homer of the afternoon, third in a stretch of two games and 10th this season, tying him with Marcell Ozuna, Gunnar Henderson and former teammate Mike Trout for the major-league lead. It was also the final blow in a 5-1 victory that gave the Dodgers a convincing three-game sweep over the Atlanta Braves this weekend.
“Slug is part of my game,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton.
Is it ever.
Ohtani’s latest homer was the third-longest at Dodger Stadium in the Statcast era, which began in 2015. Only Giancarlo Stanton (475 feet in 2015) and Fernando Tatis Jr. (467 feet in 2021) have gone further. It was also the third-longest of his career, trailing two others from Angel Stadium — a 493-foot homer in June of 2023 and a 470-foot homer in June of 2021.
Ohtani’s slash line — in his first year on a new team, with the expectations of a massive contract and in the wake of a betting scandal surrounding his now-former interpreter — is up to .364/.426/.685, giving him a major league-leading 1.111 OPS. Included in that is 25 extra-base hits, tied for the third-most by a player through his firsts 35 games with a team since 1900, according to research by ESPN Stats & Information.
“I just feel like we’re overall playing really well, so that’s really helping me have quality at-bats,” Ohtani said when asked what has clicked for him offensively in recent days.
The Dodgers went 7-2 in a three-city road trip against the Washington Nationals, Toronto Blue Jays and Arizona Diamondbacks, then came home to host the Braves (a team that held the best record in the major leagues) and outscored them by 14 runs in three games. The Dodgers have pitched to a 1.82 ERA and have hit to an .884 OPS during that 12-game stretch, both tops in the majors.
Ohtani, of course, has played a major role, with 17 hits, including five homers, in 48 at-bats. Twelve of those hits have been up the middle or to the opposite field, a clear sign of how good he feels offensively.
His latest home run was the exclamation point.
“People don’t hit the ball out there — whether you’re right-handed or left-handed, day game, night game,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “The wind actually was kinda pushing it from left to right, so he really got into that one.”
