ANAHEIM, Calif. — Shohei Ohtani might have found a new way to innovate. The Los Angeles Dodgers’ two-way superstar hit a ball Saturday night against the Los Angeles Angels that bounced over the fence … and stayed in play. Ohtani came all the way around to score on a triple and an error after the ball hit off the netting in right field at Angel Stadium.
“It’s something Shohei can do,” Mookie Betts said after the Dodgers’ 15-2 win. “Not a lot of guys can be fast enough to get around the bases, but Shohei has figured out a way.”
Ohtani looked to have hit at least a double into the right-field corner off Angels reliever Alek Manoah to bring home a run when the ball bounced in fair territory and off the extended netting down the line. When the ball struck the netting, right fielder Jo Adell raised his arms as if to signal the ball should be dead. He then picked it up and fired it home.
Max Muncy and Alex Call scurried home, and Ohtani continued running to third until he noticed Adell’s throw overshot second baseman Oswald Peraza, who was the cutoff man. Ohtani said the netting never came up during his tenure as an Angel from 2018 to 2023 — but he knew to keep on going.
SHOHEI GOES FROM HOME TO HOME. pic.twitter.com/8c35ZaR74a
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) May 17, 2026
“I just kept running,” Ohtani told SportsNet LA through interpreter Will Ireton.
Ohtani sprinted home before Manoah could collect the baseball and throw it to the plate.
“I turned around and Shohei was coming home, and I’m like, ‘What happened?’” Call said. “I didn’t find out until later. But I guess yeah, the ball’s in play there.”
The three runs extended the Dodgers’ lead to 9-2 in the eighth inning and raised at least some temporary confusion.
“I didn’t have a good vantage point,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “So I didn’t know if a fan interfered with it, or if it was down the line further. So I thought, yeah, just a Little League home run. It was good to see him hustling.”
The call was confirmed after replay review and a long discussion in which Angels manager Kurt Suzuki appeared to argue the ball should be dead due to fan interference and that Ohtani should be awarded an automatic double instead.
According to the Angel Stadium ground rules, “a ball that strikes the front of the netting, even if it hits the camera, is live and in play unless it becomes lodged or is otherwise deemed unplayable (i.e. goes completely through the netting).”
“That was a tough one, obviously,” Suzuki told reporters. “Before the nets were down the line, that ball bounced into the stands, and it’s two bases. But we challenged. We thought maybe a fan might have hit it in, and they didn’t, obviously. So, you know, unfortunate.”
Major League Baseball’s universal ground rules further stipulate that “a live ball (batted, thrown or otherwise) striking any screen or protective netting set on the field facing a wall or railing (e.g., a backstop or protective netting along the first or third base lines) and rebounding onto the field is live and in play.”
Shohei clears the bases! pic.twitter.com/LvRJA7490q
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) May 17, 2026
In his next at-bat, Ohtani hit a double, lacing a ball to right field off Manoah to drive home three runs and make it 15-2. Ohtani’s third extra-base hit over the last two games has been a welcome sight for the Dodgers following his prolonged slump. Ohtani, whose OPS dipped as low as .767 this week, had been held out of the batting lineup for rest purposes for the first time since he signed with the Dodgers ahead of the 2024 season.
The time off appears to have worked. Ohtani motored around the bases amid the chaos in the eighth inning, while the double left his bat at 111.7 mph and gave him five runs batted in on the night.
“We were hoping to get a reset with a couple days off, and I think that’s what happened,” Roberts said. “I think he’s just feeling better and quicker with the bat.”
