Ohtani: back‑to‑back leadoff homers

Shohei Ohtani opened consecutive games with home runs on the first pitch this weekend, giving the Los Angeles Dodgers instant leads on April 11 and April 12. (mlb.com) (apnews.com) On Saturday at Dodger Stadium, Ohtani drove Jack Leiter’s 86.5 mile-per-hour slider into the right-field seats to start a 6-3 Dodgers win over Texas. Teoscar Hernández added a three-run homer later in the first inning, and Los Angeles won for the seventh time in eight games. (mlb.com) (cbssports.com) On Sunday, Ohtani did it again against Jacob deGrom, homering to right field to begin a 5-2 loss that kept the Rangers from being swept. DeGrom settled in for six innings, and Texas got a tying homer from Evan Carter and two runs batted in from Brandon Nimmo. (apnews.com) (espn.com) Leadoff home runs are a narrow category inside an already rare skill: a batter must start the game and homer before anyone else records an out. Saturday’s shot was the 25th leadoff homer of Ohtani’s career, and Sunday’s was his fourth home run of the 2026 season. (mlb.com 1) (mlb.com 2) The two swings also fit the shape of Ohtani’s April after a quiet opening week. His first homer of 2026 did not come until April 3 in Washington, and his game log shows four home runs through April 12. (mlb.com) (statmuse.com) Saturday’s homer extended Ohtani’s regular-season on-base streak to 45 games, a run that carried over from 2025. That put another number behind his move into the leadoff spot for a Dodgers lineup that entered the Rangers series with one of Major League Baseball’s highest-scoring offenses. (mlb.com) (ocregister.com) The split left Los Angeles at 11-4 after Sunday and sent the club into a Monday night series opener against the New York Mets. Texas, which moved to 8-7 with the win, opened a four-game set at the Athletics next. (espn.com)