9781422269831

100 th Career Home Run

On May 14, 2022, the Angels and Athletics met for a doubleheader in Oakland. Ohtani entered the day game sitting one long ball away from career homer number 100. It took until the fifth inning of the night game, but Ohtani would not be denied that day. Adam Oller’s first pitch was a 93 mph sinker that never fooled Ohtani, who hit it over the left-centerfield wall for a two-run homer. That blast made Ohtani only the third Japanese-born MLB player to reach the mark, trailing Hideki Matsui’s 175 and Ichiro Suzuki’s 117. Out of the three, Ohtani was the fastest to 100, accomplishing the feat in 444 games.

The homer also made history in another way. Ohtani became only the second player in MLB history to hit 100 home runs and strike out 250 in a career. Only Babe Ruth had accomplished those numbers before Ohtani.

Ohtani’s 100 th career home run was one for the record books.

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Shohei Ohtani