There will be much bigger Los Angeles Dodgers moments in the superstar reel of Shohei Ohtani’s career, this we can almost guarantee. But as so many of the best in their respective sports seem capable of doing, the Japanese phenom has a sense of timing as he displayed in dramatic fashion on Friday night. In his first at-bat in Toronto since spurning the team for the Dodgers, Ohtani belted a home run off of Jays starter Chris Bassitt.
And for the one who got away, it was bombs away. He was booed in the player introductions prior to the game and again when he came to the plate, noise that had barely settled before he rocked a pitch over the right-field wall to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead in the first of three-weekend games here against the Jays. With an exit velocity of 96.
1 miles per hour, the ball travelled over 360 feet, creating a mixed reaction among the sellout Rogers Centre crowd. Some gasped. Some booed.
Others cheered. All were in awe. And it begins .
.. Ohtani booed as starting lineups announced.
Dodgers teammate Teoscar Hernandez, meanwhile, is applauded. #Bluejays Ohtani’s arrival here was much anticipated ever since the December day when he was allegedly on his way to Toronto but instead finalizing details on his $700-million US contract with the Dodgers. The aftermath was a hard one for Jays fans to digest, given the hype surrounding Toronto’s serious pursuit of the two-way star.
Some saw the Dodgers as being the inevitable end game, but not all. “I do know .
