Shohei Ohtani wasted no time endearing himself to Los Angeles Dodgers fans, blasting a two-run home run in his first spring training game with the club Tuesday.
(Video source: MLB.com)
“With Shohei, I’m starting to learn really quickly, he’s built differently,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, according to The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya.
Roberts put Ohtani in the No. 2 spot in the batting order, sandwiched between a pair of former MVPs in Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.
“You get a big glow on your face when you look at Ohtani, Freeman, and Betts,” Roberts said.
Roberts added that the Dodgers plan to move forward with the top of the lineup “for a while.”
Ohtani has a lifetime 1.013 OPS with 76 home runs and 160 RBIs across 884 at-bats when hitting second in the lineup.
“Pitchers are still gonna attack Shohei in a specific way, no doubt about it,” Roberts said. “But there’s also a chance that they should be in the strike zone a little bit more than if Freddie wasn’t behind him.”
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