{"id":636508,"date":"2026-03-06T14:35:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T14:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/636508\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T14:35:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T14:35:15","slug":"shohei-ohtani-grand-slam-dodgers-star-puts-on-show-in-japans-wbc-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/636508\/","title":{"rendered":"Shohei Ohtani Grand Slam! Dodgers’ Star Puts On Show In Japan’s WBC Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the Shohei Ohtani<\/a> effect.<\/p>\n

Ohtani hit a grand slam in the second inning on Friday at the World Baseball Classic<\/a>, pushing Japan<\/a> to a quick 4-0 lead over Taiwan. He also doubled in his first at-bat in the first inning.<\/p>\n

Shohei Ohtani hits GRAND SLAM for Japan against Chinese Taipei \u26be\ufe0f \"Shohei<\/a> <\/p>\n

That was the early game action.<\/p>\n

He also put on a giant show in batting practice hours before the game even started, thrilling many who had traveled from afar to see him.<\/p>\n

Lia Chan and her husband How and other family members flew in from Singapore<\/a> \u2014 about a seven-hour flight to Tokyo \u2014 just to watch Ohtani play in the World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n

“And baseball is not even popular in Singapore,” said Lia, who was seated a few rows behind home plate. “We know about baseball, we watch it, but when Ohtani came along it’s just gone out of proportions.”<\/p>\n

Lia, her husband and other Singaporeans in their group were among some 40,000 in the stadium oohing-and-aahing on Friday, and this was only for batting practice hours before the second Pool C game.<\/p>\n

Ohtani knows about drama.<\/p>\n

He kept the crowd waiting for perhaps 30 minutes as other Japanese players practiced and hundreds of reporters with cameras, phones and tripods milled around in a penned-off area on the field.<\/p>\n

Finally, Ohtani emerged from the dugout and waited his turn around the batting cage, hugged a few players, made small talk, and greeted some fans in an area for sponsors.<\/p>\n

Fans in the stands stood to get a better look. But they were asked to sit down by attendants holding signs in Japanese and English that read: “Please watch from your seats.”<\/p>\n

Ohtani took about 25 swings, hit about 10 balls out of the park and another few against the outfield wall.<\/p>\n

When batting practice ended, he jogged out to thank the batting practice pitcher, bowed slightly, and gathered a few loose balls and tossed them into the hopper. Then with a bat in each hand, he trotted off the field to prepare for the game against Taiwan.<\/p>\n

“Who does things like that?” Lia said. “He’s in another league.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is the Shohei Ohtani effect. Ohtani hit a grand slam in the second inning on Friday at…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":636509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[260909,170,2502,1884,1266,4712,62,67,132,68,271199,182121],"class_list":{"0":"post-636508","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-event_recap","9":"tag-japan","10":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","11":"tag-major-league-baseball","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-shohei-ohtani","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-wbc-japan-vs-chinese-taipei-03-06-2026","19":"tag-world-baseball-classic"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116182734034372748","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}