Sho-time: Dodgers teammates in awe of Ohtani, who makes more history

Shohei Ohtani didn't hit his first home run with the Los Angeles Dodgers until his ninth game, but he seems settled in now. In the ninth inning of the Dodgers' 4-1 win over the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night, Ohtani stepped up to the plate and did something that's never been done in Dodgers history.

Ohtani unloaded on a center-cut splitter from Nationals right-hander Matt Barnes, who was making his first pitch of the night. The violent swing made contact with the ball, and a thunderous crack reverberated throughout Nationals Park. All 28,036 fans in attendance knew immediately that the ball was taking flight.

“It looks like a cruise missile,” Dodgers center fielder James Outman said. “That was absurd. That was just absurd.”

The solo homer traveled 450 feet to the upper deck of Nationals Park with an exit velocity of 118.7 mph. It was the hardest-hit home run by a Dodger since Statcast began tracking data in 2015, surpassing Manny Machado's previous record of 115.6 mph. The home run — Ohtani's sixth of the season — was the hardest-hit home run of Ohtani's career, and it is the hardest hit of the season so far.

Shohei Ohtani's hits hardest home run of the season

“The farthest top-spin ball I’ve ever seen in my life,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said. “To hit a ball in the upper deck with top spin is pretty impressive. It was definitely top spin. If he hit that with backspin, it’s out of the stadium for sure.”

After Ohtani was cleared of any wrongdoing in Ippei Mizuhara’s gambling scandal, Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow said he was grateful that Ohtani could focus on the season moving forward. Just a week later, Ohtani is already breaking Dodgers' records.

Ohtani passed Hideki Matsui for the most home runs by a Japanese-born MLB player and is just one homer away from tying manager Dave Roberts for the most home runs in Dodgers history by a Japanese-born player.

"It's kind of like [Giancarlo] Stanton or [Aaron] Judge,” Roberts said. “There's a few guys that can hit a ball like that. It was a top-spin liner that reached the second deck. There's not too many guys that can do that. Shohei, we've talked about controlling the strike zone. When he does that, it's hard to get him out."

The 6-foot-6 Giancarlo Stanton and 6-foot-7 Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees have combined for nine of the 16 hardest homers since 2015. Ohtani now sits at No. 12 on that list.

Ohtani has 20 runs, 18 extra-base hits and five stolen bases through 25 games with the Dodgers. Prior to Ohtani, the last player to reach those marks in their first 25 games with a team was Barry Bonds with the Giants.

"You feel grateful to be on the same team as a guy like him," shortstop Miguel Rojas said.

Ohtani is hitting .364 with a .677 slugging percentage and a 1.107 OPS, all three of which lead the Majors. He also has the most hits (36), doubles (11), and total bases (67).

The Dodgers are now 14-11 and lead the National League West by a game.