After a rough top of the first inning in which he allowed a double and a two-run home run on his first three pitches, 35-year-old Dodgers left-hander James Paxton settled in nicely, to finish his 5.0-inning start with a final line of three runs on five hits with four walks and seven strikeouts en route to his eighth win of the season.

But that wasn’t the big news during the NL West first-place Los Angeles Dodgers’ nationally televised 9-6 win over the AL East third-place Boston Red Sox on Sunday. In fact, the big news wasn’t even that the Dodgers slugged a season-most six home runs during the contest.

No, the BIG news was that Dodgers international superstar designated hitter Shohei Ohtani came within inches of hitting an 85.9-mph cutter from 28-year-old Red Sox right-hander Kutter Crawford completely out of Dodger Stadium – a 473-foot monster blast to be exact.

“Gosh, man, he just never ceases to amaze,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said postgame of the future Hall of Famer’s incredible home run. “It’s, it’s, ahh, I mean, you just… you look at how far that ball went and how hot it came off the bat, it’s just hard to, you know, fathom somebody hitting a baseball like that.”

“I was trying to look (for the ball in flight), but I couldn’t really follow,” Ohtani said postgame through an interpreter of his team-leading 30th home run of the season. “I was looking forward to getting more at-bats (for the team) and especially hitting the big ones here at Dodger Stadium. Just overall, our whole lineup has been just putting up quality at-bats,” he added.

“We’re all just kind of shocked looking at that,” Paxton said of Ohtani’s jack. “Like, he’s superhuman. It’s pretty fun to watch.”

Joining Ohtani in Sunday’s home run hit parade were: Freddie Freeman (16), 2024 Home Run Derby champion Teoscar Hernández (20), Gavin Lux (5), Austin Barnes (1), and Jason Heyward (5), respectively.

Don’t stop now, Boys!

Play Ball!

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