Los Angeles Angels Shohei Ohtani finished preparations the day before the mound with his 11th home run of the season.

On the 21st (Korean time), Ohtani hit his 11th home run in the bottom of the 6th inning against the Minnesota Twins in the 2023 Major League Baseball held at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California, USA. The team lost 2-6 to Minnesota, ending their two-game winning streak.

Ohtani, who started as the designated hitter number 3, started the chase with a solo shot by Woo Joong-wol on a full count at the bottom of the 6th inning with the score trailing 1-4. He hit a fastball of 94.2 miles (about 151 km), the 6th pitch, from Minnesota starter Louis Barland. It was a 414-foot (about 126 m) large home run. The Angels crowd went wild with Ohtani’s pursuit shot.먹튀검증

Ohtani will start the final game of the series against Minnesota on the 22nd. Ohtani takes the lead to take the winning series in a situation where the team exchanges 1 win and 1 loss with Minnesota. He pitched in two games against Minnesota in his career, and in particular, on September 24 of last year, in the Minnesota expedition, he was the first in the major leagues to record 200 strikeouts and 30 homers at the same time.

Ohtani, who won 5 wins (1 loss) of the season with 5 runs in 7 innings against the Baltimore Orioles on the 16th, just before starting this season, will challenge Minnesota for 6 wins of the season. As of the 20th, Ohtani’s pitching record for the season is 5 wins and 1 loss with an ERA of 3.23 in 9 games.

On the other hand, Ohtani hit a home run in two games that day, but what Japanese baseball fans paid attention to on that day was not the home run, but the dugout ceremony. Ahead of the game, the Angels transferred outfielder Brett Phillips while organizing their roster. Phillips signed a one-year, $1.2 million contract with the Angels ahead of this season, but appeared in 20 games, going 1-for-13 with 3 runs, batting average of 0.077, and OPS of 0.327.

Phillips was the player in charge of the Angels’ team ceremony this season, ‘putting on a helmet’. Kabuto, a traditional Japanese helmet, was produced in Japan after consulting with Ohtani at the club ahead of the season. Phillips came out in front of the dugout and put a helmet on when someone hit a home run. On this day, Ohtani entered the dugout and gave high fives wearing a helmet that was put on by a ball boy instead of Phillips.