WATCH: Kwan and Ohtani are now both 1-2 in MLB batting average leaders. Steven Kwan goes 4/5, Ohtani hits HomeRun to eclipse Hideki Matsui as most in MLB by Japanese player. Now focus on overtaking his manager, Dave Roberts, for most by a Dodgers Japanese player
Steven Kwan’s Historic 2024 Start Continues In Guardians’ Win Over A’s
On Saturday, Kwan became the first Cleveland player with six-or-more games of three-or-more hits in the first 21 games of a season since Lou Boudreau in 1948.
While Steven Kwan has established his presence in Major League Baseball as one of the premier fielders with back-to-back Gold Gloves, it has been his reliable bat at the top of the lineup that has been one of the sparks for the Cleveland Guardians‘ hot start to the 2024 campaign.
That spark shined bright on Saturday night against the Oakland Athletics, as he tallied four hits and two runs. In 20 games played so far this season, Kwan leads MLB in batting average (.374) and hits (34), while leading the American League in runs (21).
From a historical sense, the 26-year-old is on a run to start the season that has seldom been seen in a Cleveland uniform.
Firstly, this is his sixth game of three-or-more hits in 2024. According to Stathead, the last Cleveland hitter to do that in the first 21 team games of a single season was Lou Boudreau in 1948. Kwan is the fifth to ever do it for Cleveland, also joining Lyn Lary (1937), Tris Speaker (1922), and Nap Lajoie (1904).
Secondly, Saturday marked Kwan’s seventh career game of four-or-more hits. With Saturday also being his 325th career game, he joined Asdrúbal Cabrera as the only Cleveland hitters to accomplish this in their first 325 games since 1957, per Stathead.
Thirdly, his 34 hits and 21 runs through 21 team games to start 2024 has only been done two other times in franchise history, per Stathead, by Carlos Baerga (1995) and Lyn Lary (1937). Kwan is also the 12th MLB player since 1969 to start the first 21 games of a season with those numbers.
LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani has done a lot to raise the bar in his career, changing what we even think of as possible in baseball. Now, he’s set the new standard for Japanese slugging excellence in MLB.
Facing Mets right-hander Adrian Houser in the third inning of the Dodgers’ 10-0 win on Sunday, Ohtani connected with an 0-1 slider left over the heart of the plate for his 176th career homer, breaking a tie with Hideki Matsui for most by a Japanese-born Major Leaguer. The blast was an absolute no-doubter, a liner with an exit velocity of 110 mph that traveled a Statcast-projected 423 feet into Dodger Stadium’s Right Field Pavilion.
It took seven games between Ohtani tying Matsui on April 13 and when he broke the record. He was plenty productive in that span, though, going 11-for-29 with three doubles and six walks. Ohtani reached twice more after Sunday’s homer, adding a single that deflected off Houser’s left foot in the fifth, then working a walk in the sixth before being lifted for a pinch-hitter in the eighth.
“His presence, his ability as a player, he’s just a great player,” Matsui said of Ohtani through an interpreter. “The numbers on my end are just not comparable. … I’m sure many of the fans have their expectations as far as what he may do, what he may accomplish. As far as myself, my hope is just that he stays healthy.”
Now that Ohtani holds sole possession of the Japanese-born MLB homer mark, the question becomes just how many more homers he’ll add. The 29-year-old is in the first year of his record-shattering 10-year, $700 million deal, and his 2024 is off to a blistering start.
“Hideki Matsui was a great ballplayer, great home run hitter, world champion,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “And I know that Shohei admired him. … So for him to eclipse that mark, it’s a big deal. And I know that whatever kind of mark is ahead of Shohei, he’s trying to take them all down.”
One of those marks actually belongs to Roberts. Ohtani’s fifth homer of the season also surpassed Hideo Nomo for the second-most homers by a Japanese-born player in Dodgers history, and he now trails Roberts by just two.
“I want to break my manager’s record,” Ohtani said with a smile.
https://www.mlb.com/news/shohei-ohtani-sets-japanese-born-mlb-home-run-record
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