Shohei Ohtani homered for the fifth consecutive game on Wednesday, tying a Los Angeles Dodgers franchise record.
New York Yankees star Aaron Judge was the last player to homer in five straight games, accomplishing that feat last year.
Ohtani, who leads the National League with 37 home runs, homered off Minnesota starter Chris Paddack in the first inning of a 4-3 walk-off victory against the Twins. Ohtani hit a slow curveball 441 feet to center, carrying the bat midway down the first-base line before doing a bat flip.
It was Ohtani’s MLB-leading 46th career home of at least 440 feet since entering the majors in 2018. Three of those have come in the past week.
This is the seventh time in Dodgers history that a player has homered in five consecutive games. Ohtani joins Max Muncy, Joc Pederson, Adrian Gonzalez, Matt Kemp, Shawn Green and Roy Campanella in that club.
“He’s got five in a row now [games with homers], which is pretty impressive,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “He continues to use the big part of the field and hit breaking balls, hit fastballs, so that’s been really good.”
During the streak, Ohtani has hit three home runs to center field and two to the opposite field.
Ohtani opened and closed the scoring for the Dodgers. After being intentionally walked, he advanced to second then raced home on Freddie Freeman’s bases-loaded, walk-off hit in the bottom of the ninth inning for the deciding margin.
It was the Dodgers’ eighth walk-off win of the season, tying the Boston Red Sox and behind only the San Francisco Giants (9)
Ohtani extended his franchise record for the most home runs before Aug. 1. It’s also the most home runs by any NL player before that date since 2001, when the Giants’ Barry Bonds (45) and the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Luis Gonzalez (41) had each surpassed 40.
It was Ohtani’s 262nd career home run, as well, tying Frank Robinson for 10th all time by a player in his first eight MLB seasons. Next on the list is Ted Williams, who had 265.
Ohtani, a three-time MVP, is batting .276 with 70 RBIs.
He also has pitched well in six games and is scheduled to throw four innings on Monday at the Cincinnati Reds as he is getting close in his buildup as a starter, coming back from his second surgery to repair his right ulnar collateral ligament.
With an off day on Thursday, Ohtani’s next chance to continue his home run streak will be against the Red Sox in Boston.
The record for consecutive games with a home run is eight, which has been held for a long time by Dale Long, Don Mattingly and Ken Griffey Jr. (Griffey was the last player to do it, in 1993.)
Roberts was asked if he thinks Ohtani can reach eight consecutive games.
“Well, I don’t know that answer,” Roberts said. “I do know that if he has the same approach that he’s had the last week, that Green Monster is very short. So, any fly ball that he hits will be a homer. So, he’s just got to continue to have that same approach when we go to Boston, and then we’ll see what happens.”
The Associated Press and ESPN Research contributed to this report.
