Ohtani breaks Matsui's home run record, Dodgers rout Mets 10
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shohei Ohtani broke Hideki Matsui’s major league record for homers by a Japanese-born player with a huge two-run shot in the third inning, and the Los Angeles Dodgers snapped their three-game skid with a 10-0 victory over the New York Mets on Sunday.
Ohtani crushed a 423-foot line drive off Adrian Houser (0-2) deep into the right-field bleachers for the two-time AL MVP’s fifth homer of the year and the 176th of his six-plus seasons in the majors with the Angels and Dodgers. That eclipsed the record set by Matsui, the former New York Yankees slugger who played 10 seasons in North America.
“Honestly, I was just relieved I was able to get it over with,” Ohtani said through his interpreter.
Ohtani said Matsui’s record was “not something I was cognizant of when I first started my career here, but as I got to know about it,” he began to pay attention to the numbers.