LOS ANGELES: Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani slugged his 175th career home run in Major League Baseball on Friday, matching the MLB home run record for a Japanese player held by Hideki Matsui.

After hitting the solo home run, his fourth homer this season, in the bottom of the first inning versus San Diego Padres, Ohtani doubled in the fifth inning, his 1,000th hit in his professional career in Japan and the United States. He hit another double in the seventh inning.

In the game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Ohtani went 3-for-5 with one RBI, extending his hitting streak to an eighth game, The Dodgers lost to the Padres 8-7 in 11 innings.

Ohtani collected 296 hits when he played for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, a Japanese professional baseball team, for five years until 2017 and has garnered 705 hits in MLB, including the three extra-base hits in Friday’s game.

Ohtani began to play for the Dodgers this season after working for the Los Angeles Angels for six years in 2018.

Matsui spent most of his major league career with the New York Yankees, before retiring as a professional baseball player in 2012. Before moving to MLB, Matsui played for the Tokyo-based Yomiuri Giants.

JIJI Press