TOKYO — Shohei Ohtani’s every step, swing and smile were intensely followed this week during his baseball homecoming at the Tokyo Dome, an event that would make most mortals wilt under the pressure.
The Japanese slugger was introduced before each at-bat to loud roars that continued until a few seconds before the pitch, when the crowd went into a silent trance that’s normally reserved for events such as Wimbledon in tennis or the Masters in golf, not a Major League Baseball game. Every mighty hack — even if it produced a foul ball — drew gasps as roughly 42,000 fans waited to see if their national hero would deliver.
And then he did. Because of course he did.
Ohtani hit a towering solo homer in his return to Japan, taking Chicago Cubs pitcher Nate Pearson deep with a ball that barely cleared the fence in right-center field to help the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs 6-3 on Wednesday to sweep the two-game Tokyo Series that opened MLB’s 2025 regular season.
“It’s kind of ridiculous,” Dodgers teammate Tommy Edman said of the reigning National League MVP. “It like he’s just playing a video game. We’re all out there grinding, trying to do anything we can to win a game, but he’s just playing a different game altogether.