Breaking news:Shohei Ohtani annoying announcing his resignation and departure leaving us…
Breaking news:Shohei Ohtani annoying announcing his resignation and departure leaving us…
The score was 3-3 when Will Smith was hit by a Manuel Rodriguez pitch to open the ninth. Tommy Edman lined a single to center field, and both runners advanced on Miguel Rojas’ sacrifice bunt.
Gavin Lux, with the infield in, grounded sharply to Rays second baseman Brandon Lowe, who made a diving stop to his left and threw to first for the second out, the runners holding.
Roberts sent the left-handed-hitting Max Muncy to bat for Kiké Hernández, whose three-run homer had tied the score in the fifth. Rays manager Kevin Cash countered with left-hander Colin Poche, who walked Muncy to load the bases.
As Ohtani approached the batter’s box, he wasn’t thinking home run.
“A walk would have been fine,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “I was just trying to get on base.”
Shohei Ohtani hits a grand slam in the ninth inning to send the Dodgers to a 7-3 win over the Rays on Friday night.
Shohei Ohtani hits a grand slam in the ninth inning to send the Dodgers to a 7-3 win over the Rays on Friday night. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Yeah, right. Roberts said he could sense Ohtani was about to do something dramatic, and Ohtani didn’t disappoint, crushing a first-pitch slider 389 feet to right-center field, a towering drive that just cleared the glove of leaping center fielder Jose Siri. The ball bounced onto the field, and Siri threw it back into the bleachers.
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“It was really hard to tell from my perspective,” Ohtani said, when asked if he had gotten enough of it. “I didn’t know if the ball had hit the fence or was caught, but I saw the umpire raise his hand up, and that was the moment I knew it went out.”
Ohtani’s teammates mobbed him at home plate, as the Dodgers won for the 11th time in 14 games and maintained their National League West leads of four games over Arizona and 4½ games over San Diego. When Ohtani came out for a curtain call, he was doused with a bucket of ice water.
“One of my top memorable moments,” Ohtani said, when asked where this game ranked in his career, “and I hope that I can do more and make more memorable moments.”
A 40-40 season has long been one of baseball’s most exclusive statistical feats.
It was 1988 when Jose Canseco of the Oakland Athletics recorded the first 40-40 season. Over the next two decades, Barry Bonds (1996), Alex Rodriguez (1998) and Alfonso Soriano (2006) joined him.
Last year, Ronald Acuña Jr. of the Atlanta Braves ended a 17-year drought of 40-40 seasons in emphatic style, swiping 73 bags to capture unanimous National League MVP honors.
