The Los Angeles Dodgers took the Sunday finale of their four-game series against the Reds with a 3-2 win in 10 innings over the visitors.
Of particular note is that current Dodgers DH and future ace Shohei Ohtani notched his first walk-off hit since signing a record $700 million free-agent contract with L.A. this past offseason. Ohtani came up with runners on first and second and two outs against Cincy reliever Alexis Díaz. On the sixth pitch of the at-bat, Ohtani turned around a fastball and sent it to right field, 100.3 mph off the bat, for a game-winning line-drive single that plated Jason Heyward.
Here's a look:
Shohei Ohtani's first walk-off as a Dodger! pic.twitter.com/8mhxHkJF3Q
— MLB (@MLB) May 19, 2024
Otani went 2-for-4 on the day, and his 2024 batting line now stands at .353 AVG/.423 OBP/.658 with an NL-leading 13 home runs and 11 stolen bases in as many attempts. He's also backing it all up with elite quality-of-contact indicators. Simply put, that's elite production and exactly what the Dodgers were hoping for when they signed baseball's two-time MVP.
The win pushed the Dodgers to 32-17 on the season and also nudged their MLB-best run differential up to plus-85. As of this writing, Ohtani and the Dodgers hold an eight-game lead over the Padres in the National League West. That means Dave Roberts' club is bound headlong for a 12th straight postseason berth.
Still, given that the Dodgers' roster includes the likes of Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith, Walker Buehler, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow among others, anything shy of the World Series trophy will constitute a disappointment. So far, though, things are going exactly as planned for Ohtani and his new team.
