Shohei Ohtani hit a 450-foot homer to the second deck in right field in his first visit to Nationals Park, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat Washington 4-1 on Tuesday night.
Ohtani’s sixth homer of the season was the hardest hit of his career at 118.7 mph. It was also the hardest-hit home run for a Dodgers player in the Statcast era, which began in 2015. The solo shot in the ninth inning off Matt Barnes made it 4-1 after pinch-hitter James Outman and Miguel Rojas drove in runs an inning earlier to put Los Angeles ahead.
Ohtani has 177 career homers. His previous longball on Sunday gave him the record for homers by a Japanese-born player in Major League Baseball, surpassing Hideki Matsui.
“Dangerous, very dangerous,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Ohtani before the game. “Any time he swings the bat he can hang the game and now being even more disciplined in the strike zone just makes him more scary.”
Outman, batting for Kiké Hernández, drilled a splitter from Hunter Harvey (1-1) to right field for a double in the eighth to score Teoscar Hernández from second and break a 1-1 tie. Rojas followed with a run-scoring single.
