LOS ANGELES — Give the script writers credit score: How else would you start a Hollywood rematch of final yr’s World Sequence?
Aaron Decide stated he and his Yankees teammates have been “excited and able to go” for this showdown at Dodger Stadium, trying ahead to taking the sphere towards the Dodgers in what he anticipated to be “an electrical ambiance.”
The group was certainly buzzing within the first inning of Friday’s opener, and Decide supplied the primary jolt, launching his nineteenth residence run of the season, a solo blast off Tony Gonsolin that landed on the netting beneath the center-field batter’s eye.
Decide’s blast got here on an 89.7 four-seamer, which he rotated at 113 mph, slugging a Statcast-projected 446-foot drive. Decide now has 5 profession homers at Dodger Stadium in six regular-season video games and two in final yr’s World Sequence.
“A whole lot of guys on this room, all of us love enjoying in L.A.,” Decide stated. “The followers all the time deliver the noise; they convey pleasure. It’s one in every of my favourite locations to play.”
It appeared like a tantalizing begin to a weekend sequence that pits two of the sport’s finest hitters over the past month-plus towards one another: Since April 30, Decide (1.217 OPS) and the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani (1.147) rank Nos. 1 and a pair of amongst gamers with no less than 75 plate appearances.
And positive sufficient, Ohtani responded within the residence half, belting Max Fried’s first pitch over the left-center-field wall. Ohtani’s twenty first homer got here on a 93.7 mph Fried sinker, off the bat at 105.5 mph and touring a Statcast-projected 417 toes.
Decide and Ohtani aren’t simply two of baseball’s most recognizable faces, although they’ve definitely earned that. They’re additionally first and second within the Majors in complete bases, with every on tempo for greater than 400 — Decide entered Friday at 153, Ohtani at 140 — and Nos. 1 and a pair of in runs.
“I like enjoying towards the very best,” Decide stated. “You wish to play towards the very best groups, the very best gamers. Ohtani is certainly the most effective gamers within the recreation, and he has been for a very long time. He’s off to a different incredible begin this season.”
With their early energy shows, Decide and Ohtani turned the primary reigning MVPs to hit a house run within the first inning of the identical recreation.
