Yankees give up incredibly dumb home run to Shohei Ohtani

Shohei Ohtani tied the Major League lead with his 26th home run on Monday, the first he’s hit at Yankee Stadium in his big-league career

Yankee Stadium is the “House that Ruth” built, the baseball coliseum where Babe Ruth became the most feared hitter in the game’s history. Not since Ruth a century ago has there been a player come to the Bronx like the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani.

Ohtani had never homered at the new Yankee Stadium. He hadn’t played there since his rookie season in 2018 and was 0-9 in his career. But, on Monday night, he didn’t take long to unleash a mighty blast that even Ruth would’ve been proud of.

Yankees starter Michael King fell behind Ohtani 3-1 with two outs in the top half of the first inning. The right-hander got a call with a sinker up in the zone to make it 3-2; Ohtani thought it was a ball and started walking down the first-base line before being summoned back to the plate. The next pitch, a hanging curveball low and inside, he hammered 416 feet into the bleacher seats in right field to give the Angels a quick 1-0 lead.

It was the first home run and hit of Ohtani’s career at Yankee Stadium. With an exit velocity of 117.2 mph, Ohtani’s home run was the hardest hit by a visiting player at Yankee Stadium in the Statcast era. He now has five home runs this season at least 115 mph off his bat, the most in the majors. His 26th home run tied Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for the Major League lead.

That is only part of Ohtani’s burgeoning legend that is quickly making him the best two-way player since Ruth. He’s also scheduled to pitch against the Yankees on Wednesday.

In addition to his 1.031 OPS at the plate coming into play on Monday, he has a 2.58 ERA in 11 starts, fifth in the American League among pitchers with at least 50 innings. He’s striking out 12.4 batters per nine innings, behind only Carlos Rodon, Shane Bieber, and Tyler Glasnow. He’s also in the top-10 in average fastball velocity at 95.5 mph.

That once-in-a-century combination of power at the plate and pitching skill makes Ohtani the clear-cut favorite to win AL MVP this season. Yankee Stadium, nor baseball in general, hasn’t seen anything like it since the days of the Bambino.