Two-way rookie Shohei Ohtani is going to be the main story in baseball this year, and while most evaluators are confident that his 99-mph fastball and wipeout breaking stuff are going to play at the major-league level, many people have been skeptical about his bat translating.
Well, Ohtani certainly showed off a nice swing in his first home at-bat for the Angels. Ohtani cranked a Josh Tomlin curveball over the right-center field wall at Angel Stadium for his first career major-league homer.
When Ohtani got to the dugout, he got the silent treatment from his Angels teammates, and made sure to start the celebration himself before getting a curtain call from the home crowd.
The Angels’ announcers said that the ball landed in the hands of a nine-year-old boy, and the boy plans to meet with Ohtani to give him the ball back (in exchange for some autographs, etc surely). Very cool.
UPDATE: Here’s the Japanese call of Ohtani’s home run.