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Shohei Ohtani has his first home run with the Los Angeles Dodgers after nine games of expectation.
The two-way phenom notched his first long ball of the season Wednesday in a 5-4 win over the San Francisco Giants, taking reliever Taylor Rogers way deep at Dodger Stadium. Statcast measured the ball as traveling 430 feet and 105.6 mph off the bat.
The fan who caught the homer was later seen being escorted from the stands. The Athletic's Sam Blum later reported that she exchanged the home run ball for a ball, two caps, a bat and a meeting with Ohtani.
Home runs by left-handed hitters are a rarity for Rogers, a sidearm left-hander. Ohtani's same-side homer is only the eighth Rogers has allowed in his nine-year MLB career and the first since 2021.
The homer put the Dodgers ahead 5-3 over the rival Giants, which wound up being very important when San Francisco slugger Jorge Soler hit a towering solo shot the next inning to cut the lead to one run.
After a scoreless bottom of the eighth, the Dodgers turned to journeyman reliever Dinelson Lamet to notch his first career save, which he got with a 1-2-3 top of the ninth.
Ohtani's homer comes after a somewhat slow start for the most famous player in baseball, who entered 2024 with enormous attention and pressure after signing a heavily deferred, 10-year, $700 million deal with the Dodgers in free agency. He entered Wednesday hitting .242/.297/.333, which isn't bad this early in the season, unless you have Ohtani-sized expectations.
As he told reporters after the game:
“Honestly, very relieved that I was able to hit my first home run. It’s been a while, and honestly, my swing hasn't been great. So overall, very relieved.”
The homer puts Ohtani one step closer to humorous history. He's only six homers behind current Dodgers manager Dave Roberts for the most by a Japanese-born player in Dodgers history, as MLB.com's Sarah Langs noted.
Daniel Weinman was crowned winner of the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event on Monday, taking home a record breaking $12.1 million in winnings. Weinman had to outlast the other 10,043 entrants to take home the prize and get his hands on his share of live poker’s largest ever prize pool – a staggering $93,399,900. As well as taking home the prize money, 35-year-old Weinman also got his hands on the WSOP Main Event bracelet. The huge bracelet contains 500 grams of 10-karat yellow gold, as well as 2,352 various precious gemstones.
Daniel Weinman won the World Series of Poker's main event world championship on Monday in Las Vegas, earning $12.1 million along the way. Playing in the tournament for a 16th year, Weinman was tops in a deep pool of 10,043 players vying for $93.39 million. His victory came after just 164 hands at the final table. "I was honestly on the fence about even coming back and playing this tournament," the 35-year-old Atlanta native told reporters afterward. Weinman's final table featured Jan-Peter Jachtmann, who landed in fourth place and took home $3 million, as well as Toby Lewis, who finished seventh and secured $1.42 million. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the main event's entry pool far outpaced the previous record of 8,773 set in 2006. "I've always kind of felt that poker was kind of going in a dying direction, but to see the numbers at the World Series this year has been incredible," Weinman said. "And to win this main event, it doesn't feel real. I mean, [there's] so much luck in a poker tournament. I thought I played very well." Steven Jones finished second, securing $6.5 million. And Adam Walton settled for third and a $4 million prize.
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