Sunday was an eventful day for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
MLB megastar Shohei Ohtani and rookie Andy Pages both homered, and it marked career achievements for both players.
For Ohtani, the longball was the 176th of his MLB career, and with that, he became the Japanese-born player with the most homers in MLB.
He left behind Japanese legend and 2009 World Series champion Hideki Matsui.
Pages, on the other hand, left the yard for the first time in his career.
One got his ball back, but the other one wasn’t so lucky.
“Andy Pages was handed the ball from his first career HR in the clubhouse as he spoke with reporters. The fan who caught Shohei Ohtani’s homer No. 176 to pass Hideki Matsui opted to keep the ball, which was authenticated,” Dodgers insider Fabian Ardaya tweeted.
Andy Pages was handed the ball from his first career HR in the clubhouse as he spoke with reporters.
The fan who caught Shohei Ohtani’s homer No. 176 to pass Hideki Matsui opted to keep the ball, which was authenticated.
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) April 21, 2024
Unfortunately for Ohtani, the fan who caught the ball of his 176th home run chose to keep the potentially valuable ball.
They got it authenticated by MLB, which means it’s now an important collector’s item.
In the case of Pages, however, he was able to retrieve the ball and will keep it as an important reminder of what he sacrificed to get to where he is and as motivation to get many more home runs.
He is expected to receive regular playing time, at least until Jason Heyward is back from his injury.
Pages has an extensive track record in the minor leagues and a cool .222/.300/.500 line with a .800 OPS in his first five games in The Show.
The sky is the limit for him.
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