ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Shohei Ohtani added another first to his unique resume: first player to get a win and hit a home run in All-Star play.
“I haven’t really hit well during the All-Star Game, so I’m just relieved that I put a good ball in play,” Ohtani said through a translator after putting the National League ahead with a three-run homer in Tuesday night’s 5-3 loss to the American.
Ohtani had been 1 for 4 with a pair of walks and a strikeout in three previous All-Star Games. The first two-way All-Star for three straight years through 2023, he got the win in the 2021 game at Denver’s Coors Field.
Ohtani walked in the first inning against Baltimore’s Corbin Burnes, then came to the plate in the third after Jurickson Profar singled leading off and Ketel Marte reached on a 109.5 mph hit that deflected off second baseman Marcus Semien.
Tanner Houck fell behind 2-0 in the count and Ohtani drove a splitter over the middle of the plate 400 feet, a half-dozen rows into the right-field seats for his first All-Star home run.
“I was really just focused on having a regular at-bat as if I was in the regular season,” Ohtani said.
He is 1 for 5 with three walks against Houck, hitting an RBI single while pitching the Los Angeles Angels to an 8-0 win at Boston on May 5, 2022.
“A splitter, just down, middle,” Houck said of the All-Star homer. “Get it away a little bit more, maybe a little bit better pitch.”
Ohtani is hitting .316 with an NL-high 29 homers, 69 RBIs and 23 stolen bases for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He became the first Dodgers player to homer in an All-Star Game since Mike Piazza off Cleveland’s Charles Nagy in 1996 at Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium.
A four-time All-Star playing 11 days after his 30th birthday, Ohtani was with the NL for the first time after leaving the Angels to sign a record $700 million, 10-year contract with the Dodgers. He is not pitching this season following elbow surgery last September.
In one of the night’s marquee matchups, Ohtani faced Oakland reliever Mason Miller in the fifth. Miller started him with a called strike on a 100.6 mph pitch on the inside corner, then threw a slider inside. Ohtani took a 101.8 mph pitch at the bottom of the zone for strike two, then swung over a slider at his back foot.
“Overall, very heavy,” Ohtani said. “He threw a lot of really good quality pitches.”
Miller faced Ohtani with a plan.
“I was just trying to execute fastballs down. I know once I established that, the slider below is open, so got right to it,” Miller said.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
By RONALD BLUM
AP Baseball Writer