Los Angeles Angels two-way player Shohei Ohtani made Major League Baseball history on Thursday, setting the single-season home run record for a Japanese-born player with his 32nd of the year. The season, it ought to be noted, is a long way from being done: the All-Star Break will not start until Monday, and the Angels will play 76 additional contests after their Thursday game against the Red Sox finishes up.
The record had recently had a place with long-term New York Yankees slugger Hideki Matsui, who homered multiple times in 2004.
Here’s a glance at Ohtani’s 32nd blast of the season, which came off Boston lefty Eduardo Rodriguez and left the bat at 114.5 mph.
Ohtani leads the majors in homers and has been hitting them at a absurd clip lately. Ohtani has 17 homers in 31 games since the beginning of June. He’s likewise pitching at an All-Star level and Wednesday’s homer came under 24 hours after he tossed seven in number innings on the hill against Boston.
Ohtani and Matsui are presently responsible for eight of the 10 most productive homer missions in MLB history by Japanese-conceived players. Kenji Johjima and Tadahito Iguchi are the solitary others to hit no less than 18 homers in a season:
Since setting one record a day isn’t sufficient for Ohtani, he likewise turned into the primary part in MLB history to have somewhere around 32 homers and no less than 12 taken bases before the All-Star Break, as indicated by the Angels.