Slugger is first Japanese-born player to achieve feat
July 13th, 2024
Steve Kornacki
DETROIT -- Shohei Ohtani reached a home run milestone and had a big game Saturday afternoon at Comerica Park, but he wasn’t enough to save the Dodgers from an 11-9 loss to the Tigers in 10 innings.
Ohtani’s 200th MLB homer broke a 2-2 tie in the top of the fifth inning. The solo shot pulled down the right-field line against right-hander Keider Montero came on a changeup, and was Ohtani’s National League-leading 29th of the season.
However, Detroit capped a five-run, ninth-inning comeback with a two-run homer by rookie Colt Keith off closer Evan Phillips to force extra innings.
“It’s really incredible," said manager Dave Roberts of Ohtani's performance. "The stolen bases, the home runs. He’s having a tremendous, MVP-type season. Two hundred homers with how short he’s been in the big leagues … and take away some of the IL time.
“How he’s done it so quickly is pretty remarkable, and he legged out a triple. Unfortunately, we couldn’t celebrate that 200-homer accomplishment with a win.”
The Dodgers had been 48-0 when leading after eight innings.
“It’s not us,” said Roberts. “It doesn’t happen, but it certainly happened today.”
Even after the lead slipped away in the 9th, Los Angeles still had a chance for extra-inning redemption.
In the 10th, with Cavan Biggio on second and one out, Ohtani was intentionally walked. Reliever Will Vest then hit Teoscar Hernández to load the bases, but Freddie Freeman hit into an inning-ending double play on a well-struck ball that nearly got through the infield.
The Tigers won it in the 10th on a one-out, two-run homer by Gio Urshela off Yohan Ramírez.
“We had a five-run lead,” said Roberts, “and there’s just no excuse for us losing that game. We’ve just got to be better.”
Detroit’s comeback win was rain on the parade of Ohtani’s great outing.
The two-time American League MVP is the first Japanese-born MLB player to reach the 200-homer milestone. He passed Hideki Matsui (175) earlier this season.
Ohtani turned 30 on July 5, and it's fair to wonder just how many homer milestones he will reach in his career.
- Ohtani's top 10 home runs in MLB
He hit homer No. 1 on April 3, 2018 at Anaheim for the Angels, a three-run shot to deep right-center field against Cleveland’s Josh Tomlin.
Ohtani connected for No. 100 on May 14, 2022 for the Angels with a two-run shot to left-center off Adam Oller in Oakland.
No. 200 came on Ohtani’s 2,848th at-bat, in the middle of his seventh season. Ohtani has picked up his homer pace in the last three seasons, registering 46 in 2021, 34 in 2022 and 44 in 2023.
He also tripled leading off the first inning and came around to score the first of his three runs on Freeman’s fielder’s choice grounder. Ohtani's third run came in the eighth, when he walked and scored after collecting his 23rd steal of the season. He knocked in his second run of the game with a fielder’s choice grounder in the sixth.
Ohtani now holds the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers franchise record for extra-base hits before the All-Star break with 56, surpassing Hall of Famer Duke Snider. However, with seasons starting earlier now and the All-Star Game being played later, there is a disparity; Snider had 55 extra-base hits in 80 games in 1954, while this was Ohtani’s 93rd game of the season and the Dodgers’ 96th.
Justin Wrobleski, who allowed four runs (three earned) on five hits over five innings, struck out four and walked a pair in his second career start. However, his first MLB win wasn’t in the cards.
“I thought he threw well, but made some mistakes they took advantage of,” said Roberts, alluding to the back-to-back homers surrendered to Ryan Vilade and Andy Ibáñez in his fifth and final inning. “But still, we were in position to win the game.”
After the back-to-back homers, the Dodgers still led 5-4. Enrique Hernández added insurance runs in the seventh with a two-run homer off the foul pole in left, his fifth of the season.
Still, in the end, the hitting heroics couldn’t produce a victory for the Dodgers, as the bullpen let the game get away just one day after combining to blank the Tigers over 5 1/3 innings, breaking a four-game losing streak.
The bullpen is running on fumes, and it’s not the best time for a bullpen game. But that’s the Dodgers’ plan for Sunday’s final game before the All-Star break. Roberts did not announce who would be the opener.
“We’ve got a guy or two coming to try to figure out some length,” said Roberts of the pending Sunday call-ups. “So, it’s going to be a piecemeal effort to try to cover nine innings tomorrow.
“You know, we still have a chance to win the series.”
