There was a lot of excitement at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday.
First, Shohei Ohtani tied a Dodgers record with his fifth home run in five games. Then Freddie Freeman walked it off with a ninth-inning, bases-loaded knock to secure a 4-3 Dodgers win over the Minnesota Twins.
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Ohtani got the scoring started in the second Dodgers at-bat of the game. With an 0-2 count, Twins starter Chris Paddack didn’t attempt to induce a swinging strike three with a pitch off the plate. Instead, he left a 79 mph curveball hanging over the heart of the plate.
It was an invitation for Ohtani to swing. And swing he did, for a 411-foot homer over the center-field wall to secure a 1-0 Dodgers lead.
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Ohtani’s fifth home run in five games tied him with six other Dodgers players for the longest such streak in franchise history. He joins Max Muncy, Joc Pederson, Matt Kemp, Adrian Gonzalez, Shawn Green and Roy Campanella in achieving the feat.
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With a home run Friday against the Red Sox at Fenway Park, Ohtani would claim the Dodgers record as his own.
The home run extended Ohtani’s NL-best tally to 37 and puts him just two behind MLB home-run leader Cal Raleigh in what’s shaping up to be quite the race for the 2025 home run title. Aaron Judge and Eugenio Suarez sit just behind Ohtani with 36 home runs each.
There was no doubt about Shohei Ohtani’s first-inning home run against the Twins.
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It was Ohtani’s second home run this week that played a significant role in a win, after his two-run blast Monday in a game he started on the mound put the Dodgers ahead in a 5-2 victory over the Twins.
With the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, Freeman took the plate with two outs and the Dodgers trailing 3-2. Twins reliever Griffin Jax fired a 96 mph fastball over the plate on a 1-2 count.
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Freeman hit a line drive to left field that just snuck under the glove of Harrison Bader for a base hit.
Mookie Betts scored from third base on the play. And Ohtani, appropriately, came around from second to score the winning run.
Cue the Randy Newman.
