Well, that’s one method to silence a heckler.
Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani hit a home run within the prime of the ninth to cap off Sunday’s 8-2 win in opposition to the San Diego Padres, but it surely wasn’t the home run off Yuki Matsui that had everybody speaking; it’s what Ohtani did after rounding the bases.
Before becoming a member of his teammates in celebration, the 31-year-old took a detour to the Padres fan sitting instantly subsequent to the customer dugout.
The fan’s voice may very well be heard on subject mics all through the published reminding the three-time MVP of his struggles within the batter’s field all through the collection. Ohtani was sitting at 0-10 – uncommon for him – earlier than the homer.
So, after hitting his 45th home run of the season, Ohtani, with an enormous smile on his face, ran as much as the fan and gave him a excessive 5 and a pat on the again.
The digital camera minimize to the fan who appeared to shake his head whereas smiling after the interplay. He was then seen laughing whereas speaking to these round him. All in good enjoyable, it appears.
“Very annoying, as he’s in my right ear the entire game. But it was very out of character for Shohei and he was wearing him out the whole game,” Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts stated after the sport. “It was good to see Shohei, you know, initiate a high five from him.”
The skipper added with a smile, “That was great. That was fun. It was good to see Shohei show his personality.”
Ohtani actually wasn’t the one Dodgers participant struggling earlier within the collection as their offense solely scraped collectively two runs complete within the opening two video games – each LA losses – earlier than exploding on Sunday.
His projected 409-foot home run to right-center got here with Los Angeles already up by 5 within the ninth. It was the cherry on prime of a dominant outing for the defending World Series champions.
The win moved the Dodgers stage with their division rivals within the NL West, however with San Diego dropping 6-9 to the Seattle Mariners and the Dodgers blowing out the Cincinnati Reds 7-0 on Monday, LA now has a sport lead within the back-and-forth division race.