Last Night in Baseball: Shohei Ohtani’s bat just sounds ridiculous

There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to handle themselves.

That’s why we’re here to help, though, by sifting through the previous days’ games, and figuring out what you missed, but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball:

The SOUND of this Ohtani home run

Shohei Ohtani just hits different. Think about it. The Dodgers’ two-way star has the elite pitcher height that scouts love, and the elite strength of a hitter that scouts also salivate over filling out that 6-foot-4 frame. Size and strength aren’t enough, of course, but combine Ohtani’s size and strength with his eye and his swing, and, well, you get a ball that sounds like this one did coming off of the bat. Seriously, replay the point of contact a few times, it’s mesmerizing.

Ohtani absolutely smoked this knuckle curve from Rockies starter German Marquez. The moonshot traveled 448 feet and kick-started a huge first inning by the Dodgers.

Shohei Ohtani CRUSHES a solo homer, Dodgers strike first vs. Rockies

Ohtani added an RBI single later to give the Dodgers a 7-1 lead later in the inning, and good thing, too, since, the Rockies ended up storming back over the course of the game – Los Angeles pulled it out 8-7 in the end.

Benches clear in Pittsburgh

Baseball players don’t love it when a high-velocity object is aimed at their head. It might be hard to believe that this is the case, but you can trust that it’s true. Andrew McCutchen had to duck out of the way of a 92-mph fastball from Nationals‘ reliever Jorge López in the seventh inning in Pittsburgh, and while it probably wasn’t intentional, Bryan Reynolds had been hit by a pitch one batter before, and Nationals’ infielder Paul DeJong had been hit in the face by a Mitch Keller pitch just the day before. So it’s also easy to understand why everyone reacted to this the way that they did.

Benches clear between

Benches cleared, but there was no brawl, and only López was ejected – again, it might not have been intentional, but the umpires decided that was quite enough of that from the reliever for one night. That actually ended up being the inciting incident for the benches clearing, too, as López and the umps argued with each other far more than the pitcher and McCutchen did.

Oneil Cruz was on deck when the benches cleared, and once things settled down and he came up to the plate, they got rowdy again in a much different way. A grand slam will do that.

The Pirates ended up winning, 6-1. Cruz’s grand slam wasn’t exactly necessary given the Bucs’ pitching on Wednesday, but who doesn’t love a statement swing?

Spencer Strider is back in the Braves‘ rotation, and while his start went well enough – five strikeouts in five innings and two runs allowed – it wasn’t enough to help Atlanta defeat the Blue Jays. That’s more on the offense than Strider, however, which was held to one run. Still, he did accomplish one feat in those five frames: he logged his 500th career strikeout, and it was a notable one or more than just being a round number. Strider is the fastest (primary) starter in MLB history to 500 strikeouts, pulling it off in just 334 career innings.

Speaking of strikeouts, the Blue Jays struck out 19 Braves on Wednesday afternoon, a franchise record.

Maybe Atlanta needs to see if Strider can hit, too.

Big Dumper’s big blast

Cal Raleigh is known for two things: his power, and the backside that gives it to him. That Big Dumper nickname didn’t come out of nowhere, you know? Everyone in the Mariners’ organization is proud of that thing. Possibly too proud:

Anyway, Raleigh hit his 100th-career home run on Wednesday.

That was Raleigh’s second dinger of the game, seventh of the season, and also went about as high in the air as you can hit a baseball. Oh, and those two homers were hit from opposite sides of the plate. The switch-hitting Raleigh can do it all.

No, really. Raleigh also delivered on the defensive side with this shovel throw to first base on a swinging bunt:

Platinum Dumper, indeed.

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