ANAHEIM, California – Shohei Ohtani hit his major league-leading 31st homer of the season for the Los Angeles Angels in the team’s 6-5 walk-off victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday, tying the record for the most homers in a Major League Baseball season by a Japanese-born player.
With his third-inning solo shot off Baltimore’s Thomas Eshelman, Ohtani tied the record set by former New York Yankees player Hideki Matsui in 2004.
After blowing a four-run lead, the Angels rallied in the ninth to complete a sweep of the Orioles. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, Juan Lagares smacked a double into right-center field to score two runs and win the game.
Earlier Sunday, the two-way sensation became the first player in MLB history to be named an All-Star as both a hitter and a pitcher as the All-Star Game rosters were filled out.
Ohtani was selected as a pitcher after being voted into the game earlier in the week by fans as the American League’s designated hitter. The reserves and pitchers were announced to complete the American and National League teams’ 32-man rosters.
“The guy’s going to participate in Home Run Derby, pitch in the game and hit in the game. That doesn’t happen, like, ever,” Angels manager Joe Maddon said. “Even the non-baseball fan can really latch onto this and become interested.”
Ohtani has drawn comparisons for his two-way play to the legendary American Babe Ruth, who retired in 1935 after 22 seasons. Ruth, nicknamed the ‘Sultan of Swat’, ended his career with 714 home runs and 10 World Series titles. But Ruth didn’t pitch much after the 1919 season and the All-Star game didn’t come into being until 1933.
Heading into Sunday, Ohtani had a .278 batting average and 66 RBI along with a 3-1 record and a 3.60 ERA in 12 starts on the mound to go with 83 strikeouts in 60 innings.
Maddon said earlier in the week that he expects Ohtani to pitch at least one inning in the mid-season showcase.
“Of course, he’d only pitch one inning, and he’d maybe get one at-bat,” Maddon said. “Let him hit and pitch. People want to see that.”
Ohtani was joined by two other Japanese pitchers on the All-Star roster — Yusei Kikuchi of the Seattle Mariners, who attended the same high school as Ohtani in Iwate Prefecture, and Yu Darvish of the San Diego Padres.
Ohtani and Kikuchi will be playing in the Midsummer Classic for the first time in their careers, while Darvish was selected to his fifth All-Star Game, held this year at Denver’s Coors Field on July 13.
Ohtani will also be the first Japanese-born player to compete in the Home Run Derby, held the night before the All-Star Game.
In a two-phase selection process, the fan-selected starters were announced Thursday. The reserves and pitchers were selected by a combination of player ballots and picks made by the Commissioner’s Office.
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Source : Baseball – The Japan Times