Dodger fans who got up at 3 AM to watch their beloved team play the Tokyo Giants – for a Spring Training exhibition game – very early Saturday morning witnessed something absolutely incredible. They not not only witnessed their beloved team play – and win – a game in front of a sold-out Tokyo Dome crowd of 42,064, but they – and all of those 42,064 Tokyo Dome fans – got to witness exactly what they came to see – their country’s national baseball hero Shohei Ohtani hit a home run in person.
The 30-year-old Oshu, Japan native did exactly that with no outs in the top of the third inning on the very first pitch he saw from 24-year-old Giants right-hander Shosei Togo – a towering two-run 391-foot shot to right-center field – to give the Dodgers a then 4-0 lead in their eventual 5-0 shutout victory of Nippon Professional Baseball’s (NPB) most popular team.
(SportsNet LA)
Ohtani’s blast was the second of the inning, following a solo shot to right-center field by Dodgers left fielder Michael Conforto to lead off the inning, and was followed by two-out two-run blast two batters later to left-center field by popular Dodgers left fielder Teoscar Hernández to polish off the Dodgers five-run third inning.
“Shohei just did a really good job of a split(finger fastball) down below and rode it out and put a really good swing on it,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said postgame of Ohtani’s blast.
Oh sure, Tokyo Giants fans left the world-famous Tokyo Dome with their team having lost the game, but to the person they all got to see exactly what they came to see, and you gotta love that!
Play Ball!
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