Shohei Ohtani hit a home run this Sunday against the New York Mets and reached 176 for life. With this home run, Ohtani leaves Hideki Matsui behind and becomes the top home run hitter.
Ohtani tied and beat Matsui at Dodger Stadium, the stadium that will be his home for the next 10 years.
He hit the home run off Adrian Houser on a 0-1 count in his second at-bat. This was his 5th home run of the season. The hit went 423 feet at a speed of 110 miles per hour.
Matsui played 10 seasons for 4 teams, including the Yankees and Rays. He had a .282 batting average, 1,253 hits, 175 home runs, 760 runs batted in and 656 runs scored.
It took Shohei a while to get his first home run. Although since he hit the first one in a Dodgers uniform he began to have the necessary rhythm to produce on offense.
Shohei Ohtani on his way to 200 home runs
Now the next goal for the Japanese slugger will be to reach 200 career home runs, the first for an Asian player in the Majors.
There are 19 players who are 25 or less away from reaching 200 career home runs in the Majors. As far as age is concerned, Pete Alonso (29 years old), Cody Bellinger (28) and Shohei Ohtani (29) are the youngest.
Mike Trout holds the record for most home runs at 29 years of age. Shohei Ohtani’s former teammate hit 310 home runs.
Shohei Ohtani will look to join Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman as the only active Dodgers hitters with 200 or more home runs.
Another teammate who is close to reaching 200 for life is third baseman Max Muncy, who has 184 for life in the Dodgers.
Another milestone that Ohtani has in the near future is to get closer on the hit list for a Japanese hitter.
Ichiro Suzuki leads the list with 3,089 hits, Hideki Matsui is second with 1,253 and in third place follows the Dodgers slugger.
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