The first person Shohei Ohtani encountered on his way to the dugout was Teoscar Hernandez, who, amid so much newness and so much turmoil, has become quite possibly his best friend on the team. Hernandez, the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ affable corner outfielder, stood near the railing and bestowed Ohtani with the offering that awaits every teammate who homers: a face full of sunflower seeds.
Ohtani had finally broken through.
The past four months had seen him face the pressure of a $700 million contract, the transition to a new organization and, most shockingly, the uneasiness of a betting scandal that led to the firing of his longtime interpreter and closest confidant, Ippei Mizuhara. Added to all that was then a slow start through the season’s first eight games. But on Wednesday night, in the late stages of a 5-4 victory that solidified a sweep of the division-rival San Francisco Giants, Ohtani cranked his first home run, a seventh-inning, 430-foot drive to right-center field.
It came on the final day of the Dodgers’ first homestand, in front of a sold-out crowd of nearly 53,000 people.
For the first time as a Dodger, it seemed, Ohtani belonged.
Click here for the team’s reaction on ESPN
