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Shohei Ohtani Hit Two Stunning Homers to Take Over the AL Lead

He’s putting together another incredible season.

Dan Gartland

Shohei Ohtani Hit Two Stunning Homers to Take Over the AL Lead
Shohei Ohtani Hit Two Stunning Homers to Take Over the AL Lead /
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The American League has a new home run leader, and it shouldn’t be a surprise who it is. 

With two homers in Monday night’s win over the Rangers, Shohei Ohtani brought his total on the season to 20, one ahead of Aaron Judge’s 19. He’s still two homers shy of Pete Alonso’s major league lead, but with Alonso on the injured list after being hit on the wrist by a pitch, Ohtani could soon overtake him. 

Ohtani’s two dingers on Monday weren’t cheap ones, either. The first one came on a good low, inside pitch from Grant Anderson that Ohtani absolutely demolished. He somehow crushed it 459 feet to left-center with an exit velocity of 114.1 mph. He put an exclamation mark on it with a nice bat flip, too. 

Ohtani now has 14 home runs since the start of the 2021 season with an exit velocity of 114 mph or higher, second only to Giancarlo Stanton’s 19 in that timespan. 

But Ohtani wasn‘t done. With the game tied 5–5 in the top of the 12th, Ohtani jumped on the first pitch he saw gave the Angels the lead with another home run. This one was equally impressive. It looked like he just fought the pitch off and sent it the other way, but really he had smacked it with an exit velocity of 107 mph. That was hard enough to send it over the wall in left and put two runs on the board. 

Ohtani is putting together another incredible season. Not only has he now hit more homers than any other AL player, he’s also having another strong season on the mound. His 102 strikeouts as a pitcher are third in the majors behind Spencer Strider and Kevin Gausman. This is the third season in a row that he’s struck out at least 100 batters and hit at least 20 home runs. No other player in MLB history has had even one such season. 

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Dan Gartland
DAN GARTLAND

Dan Gartland is the writer and editor of Sports Illustrated’s flagship daily newsletter, SI:AM, covering everything an educated sports fan needs to know. He joined the SI staff in 2014, having previously been published on Deadspin and Slate. Gartland, a graduate of Fordham University, is a former Sports Jeopardy! champion (Season 1, Episode 5).

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