Another day, another jaw-dropping moment for Shohei Ohtani.
On Friday night in Los Angeles, the Angels‘ two-way star launched his 30th home run of the season and did so in a powerful way — a 493-foot shot to right field off Arizona Diamondbacks starter Tommy Henry that was the longest of his major league career and the longest by any player in the big leagues this season.
“It was loud. I’ll leave it at that,” Henry said. “I didn’t watch it. I don’t really like to watch home runs. It didn’t feel good leaving the hands.”
The solo shot came in the sixth inning and continued a torrid stretch for the Japanese sensation. He now has 15 home runs in June (including five this week alone), increasing an Angels record for a month he had set Thursday. He also tied Babe Ruth (1930 Yankees), Bob Johnson (1934 A’s) and Roger Maris (1961 Yankees) for the AL mark in June.
Ohtani also joined Sammy Sosa (1998) as the only players with 30 home runs and 10 stolen bases before the month of July in a season in major league history. And he became just the fourth player in American League history to record 30 home runs before the month of July in a season, joining Ken Griffey Jr., Chris Davis and Babe Ruth.
Ohtani’s three longest homers have come at Angel Stadium. His previous best was a 470-foot drive off Kansas City’s Kris Bubic in 2021.
Ohtani finished Friday night 1-for-2 with a pair of walks as the Angels dropped their third straight, 6-2.
“I hear of all these 500-[foot] shots that guys had in the past,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said. “I know the calculations before and now are a little different, but I don’t think there’s going to be a ball hit further than that one. Awesome. I mean, he had a great night with two walks and the home run. That kind of gives you some energy and we got some runners on after that. We just couldn’t get a big hit.”
Information from ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press was used in this report.
Source: www.espn.com