Ohtani homers on first pitch

Shohei Ohtani opened Sunday’s game by hitting Jacob deGrom’s first pitch into the right-field seats at Dodger Stadium. (mlb.com) The home run came in the bottom of the first inning on April 12, 2026, and it was Ohtani’s second straight leadoff homer in the Dodgers’ series against Texas. Los Angeles still lost 5-2 as the Rangers avoided a three-game sweep. (mlb.com) (apnews.com) A day earlier, Ohtani had also started the game with a home run, taking Rangers right-hander Jack Leiter deep to begin Saturday’s 8-7 Dodgers win. Sunday’s blast came off deGrom, a two-time Cy Young Award winner making his first regular-season start at Dodger Stadium as a Ranger. (mlb.com) (apnews.com) The swing also extended Ohtani’s on-base streak to 46 games, which Major League Baseball said left him one short of tying Ron Cey’s 1975-76 run for the fourth-longest by a Dodger in the modern era. (mlb.com) That put the clip in a larger early-season pattern. Baseball Savant listed Ohtani with a.407 weighted on-base average and a 26.3 percent barrel rate in 2026 entering Monday, numbers that reflect how often he is hitting the ball hard and in the air. (baseballsavant.mlb.com) The homer was his fourth of the season, according to Major League Baseball’s video log, after his first three came on April 3, April 5 and April 6. StatMuse’s game log showed he had gone deep in three of his previous seven games before the Texas series finale. (mlb.com) (statmuse.com) The viral clip traveled fast in part because it compressed the matchup into one pitch: deGrom threw a four-seam fastball, Ohtani attacked immediately, and the Dodgers had a 1-0 lead before most fans had settled in. Major League Baseball’s official recap described it as a first-pitch four-seamer driven into the Right Field Pavilion. (mlb.com) By Monday, the Dodgers were 10-3 and back home to open a series against the New York Mets, with Ohtani carrying that 46-game on-base streak into the next game. The first pitch Sunday was enough for a highlight, even if it was not enough for a Dodgers win. (statmuse.com) (mlb.com)