Shohei Ohtani’s “dad strength” finally kicked in on Tuesday night as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ slugger hit his first home run since the birth of his daughter to jump-start a 15-2 victory over the Miami Marlins.
“It was a good home run to get back on the board for this game,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “I haven’t hit one since being a father, so it’s a really nice one to be able to do that.”
Whether it is a myth or statistically proven fact, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is a firm believer in “dad strength,” the theory that some players gain physical strength and stamina upon entering fatherhood.
Photo: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / USA Today
The MLB.com’s research department found that among the more than 200 instances of hitters returning to action from the paternity list from 2011 to last year, 28 hit a home run in their first game back.
“Now that he’s a father, we might see some 120mph [193kph] exit velocities off the bat,” Roberts said last week.
In Baltimore, the New York Yankees greeted the Orioles’ Kyle Gibson in his return to the major leagues by homering on three of his first five pitches.
When Trent Grisham, Aaron Judge and Ben Rice went deep, it marked the second time this year that New York began a game with three consecutive home runs.
The Yankees are the first team to do that more than once in a season — and they did it before the end of April.
Cody Bellinger — the game’s fifth batter — also hit a solo homer, and Gibson allowed another one to Rice in the second.
The Yankees ultimately went deep six times and thrashed the Orioles 15-3.
‘DEVASTATED’: Argentina’s win was a reversal of their 28-24 defeat last week, with Australian forward Fraser McReight adding that ‘we did the same thing last week’ Argentina flyhalf Santiago Carreras punished an undisciplined Australia with 23 points off the tee as the Pumas held on grimly for a 28-26 win in Sydney yesterday to breathe new life into their Rugby Championship campaign. A try-fest beckoned in afternoon sunshine at Sydney Football Stadium, but Argentina needed only one through captain Julian Montoya, with Carreras doing the damage with seven penalties and a conversion in front of a sell-out crowd. A week after letting a 14-point lead slip in a 28-24 defeat to Australia in Townsville, Argentina saw most of a 21-point advantage erased in the final quarter as the
ELEVEN STRIKEOUTS: Blake Snell allowed two singles and two walks against the Rockies as he ended a personal three-game skid with his first win since Aug. 16 Blake Snell on Wednesday struck out a season-high 11 in six innings, while Mookie Betts hit a grand slam in the eighth as the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Colorado Rockies 9-0 for their fourth straight win. Helped by their third series sweep of the Rockies this MLB season, the Dodgers increased their National League West lead to three games over the San Diego Padres, who lost 2-1 at home to the Cincinnati Reds. Betts went four for five with five RBIs, capped by his seventh career slam on a 3-0 pitch from reliever Anthony Molina to make it 8-0. Andy Pages and
Captain Vijay Kumar led the way yesterday as the Hsinchu Titans claimed the Taiwan Premier League title at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山), beating PCCT by 27 runs. The weather was a topic again, but not the rain that played a role in previous matches in the often-delayed tournament. Kumar, who made 80 not out from 63 deliveries, and teammate Vishwajit Kumar (58 from 43) rescued the Titans from a precarious state at the end of the power play in the T20 match. The visitors were put in to bat and struggled to 26-3 as PCCT
China’s state-run People’s Daily newspaper on Monday published an essay about Chinese basketball it said was written by LeBron James, but a representative for the NBA star said on Thursday that the article was based on a series of interviews. The paper, better known as the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, had said James authored the essay, “Basketball is a Bridge that Connects Us,” a tribute to Chinese players and fans of the sport written in the first person. “LeBron James Pens an Article in the People’s Daily,” read a post published on the newspaper’s official WeChat account. On Thursday, a representative
RSS