It took nine games and 37 official at-bats, but on Wednesday night in front of a sold out Dodger Stadium crowd of 52,746, highly touted superstar designated hitter Shohei Ohtani finally hit his first home run in a Dodgers uniform, and man did he crush it.

“Honestly, very relieved that I was able to hit my first home run,” the popular 29-year-old Oshu, Japan native told Dodger Insider’s Cary Osborne postgame about his mammoth 430-foot seventh inning solo blast to right-center field off of San Francisco Giants left-hander Taylor Rogers. “It’s been a while, and honestly, my swing hasn’t been great. So overall, very relieved.”

“There certainly was some relief, I’m certain of that,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts echoed, following his team’s 5-4 win over the Giants, with Othani’s solo blast being the eventual game winner to complete a three-game sweep of The Hated Ones.

“I thought his last at-bat before the homer to left-center, I thought he took a good swing there, and just had some really good at-bats versus (Giants starting left-hander Kyle) Harrison, who’s tough on lefties, and just got a breaking ball just out over,” Roberts added. “It was good to see him hit his first homer with us at Dodger Stadium. Obviously, all the fans, you know, got a lot of enjoyment out of it, and I’m sure there was some relief there.”

Enjoyment for one fan in particular:

Although not original and obnoxiously redundant, it is officially ‘Sho-Time‘ in LA.

Play Ball!

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