Shohei Ohtani hit a three-run homer for the National League in its 5-3 loss to the American League in Major League Baseball's All-Star Game on Tuesday.
The Los Angeles Dodgers' two-way star, starting as the NL's designated hitter for the first time after three seasons as the AL's starting DH, put his team up 3-0 in the top of the third inning at Globe Life Field with a 400-foot blast on a 2-0 pitch from the Boston Red Sox's Tanner Houck.
The home run was the second in an MLB All-Star game by a Japanese and the first to leave the field of play, following Ichiro Suzuki's 2007 inside-the-park homer.
"I hit it a little toward the end of the bat, but got a good angle on it, so I was confident it would go out," Ohtani said. "Because I wanted to hit one and actually did, there was some relief."
Ohtani was the AL's starting and winning pitcher in 2021, and according to MLB.com, the first player with a pitching win and a home run in MLB All-Star play. Ohtani previously accomplished that feat in Japan.
He left Tuesday's game after going 1-for-2 with a walk and a strikeout. The AL tied it in the bottom of the third on a two-run Juan Soto double and a David Fry single, but Chicago Cubs first-year lefty Shota Imanaga struck out one in a 1-2-3 fourth to keep the score tied.
"It was like a dream. I am so happy to have kept them off the board," Imanaga said of his MLB All-Star debut. "I wasn't nervous, but I didn't want Ohtani's home run to go to waste."
Imanaga, who said he expected this experience to be a career highlight when he quits playing, named Ohtani as the player who impressed him the most.
"Even at an event like this, he's a star. I feel a little jealous," Imanaga joked.
Unfortunately, the AL took the lead for good in the fifth, on a two-run home run by the Red Sox's Jarren Duran, who was named the game's MVP.
Prior to the game, the players walked a red carpet, where Ohtani, who entered with his wife Mamiko, opened his tan suit jacket to reveal images of his dog, Dekopin, printed on the lining.
Asked why he didn't bring the dog along to share the red carpet with him, Ohtani said, "If he went to the bathroom, it would be a bit of a problem, so we left him at home."
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