Ohtani fouled off the first two pitches, delivering a pair of hard hits on fastballs in the outfield. Then, after hitting a curveball in the dirt, he immediately hit another one up the middle of the plate. Like 49 times before this season, the 30-year-old hitter took the shot with his right foot, swung his hips powerfully and smashed the baseball with a powerful, powerful strike. As the opposite field shot hit the bat beyond the left field wall, Ohtani dropped the bat, clenched his fists and shouted toward his dugout as he ran up to first base. When he crossed home plate, many of his teammates were on the field to greet him. Almost all of them had the same surprised expression.

“In that situation, when he knew he was right on the brink of history, and somehow stayed within the crease and hit the ball in a straight line toward left-center and didn’t try to overhit away,” third baseman Max Muncy said, “it was unbelievable.” “To be honest, I almost cried,” player Miguel Rojas added. “It’s a lot of emotions, because of everything that goes on behind the scenes that we get to see every day.”