Shohei Ohtani snaps long ball drought with two dingers, now has 250 career homers

LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani had never gone 10 games without hitting a homer for the Los Angeles Dodgers until this month.The three-time MVP ended his drought Saturday night — and then started making up for lost time.Ohtani hit two homers against the Giants, emphatically reaching 25 homers for the fifth consecutive season during Los Angeles’ 11-5 victory over San Francisco.He also now has 250 career homers.Ohtani led off the game with his 24th, hammering Landen Roupp’s fourth pitch 419 feet deep into the right-field bleachers with an exit velocity of 110.3 mph.The slugger had gone 10 for 40 with no RBIs since his most recent homer June 2 — although he still had an eight-game hitting streak during his power outage.“It did feel like I hadn’t hit a homer in a while,” Ohtani said through his interpreter.“In terms of the context of the two homers, I think the first homer was more significant, just being able to score early in the game.”Ohtani then led off the sixth with his 25th homer, sending Tristan Beck’s breaking ball outside the strike zone into the bleachers in right.

Dodgers fans brought him home with a standing ovation for his third multihomer game of the season and the 22nd of his career.He also moved one homer behind the Yankees’ Aaron Judge and Seattle’s Cal Raleigh for the overall major league lead.“I didn’t realize that,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said when informed of Ohtani’s homer drought.“He has a way of making up for things and leveling things out, so hitting two homers tonight gets him, I guess, back on track.

… I think it seemed like a while.I think there was a lot of chase down below in the last 10 days, so tonight he got the ball up, used the big part of the field and put some big swings together.

But yeah, when he goes, it makes life a lot easier for all of us.”Ohtani had slowed down a bit over the past two weeks since he was named the NL Player of the Month for May, racking up 15 homers and 28 RBIs.He w...