
Baseball: Shohei Ohtani goes 1-for-2 in 5th All-Star appearance
The Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star singled to center leading off the bottom of the first inning and came home on a two-run double by Ketel Marte of the Arizona Diamondbacks at Truist Park in Atlanta.
In the second inning, Ohtani grounded out to first, one pitch after he narrowly missed a homer with a hard-hit foul ball to right field.
"I just wanted to be aggressive, no matter whether I end up hitting a home run or striking out," Ohtani said. "My base hit wasn't an impressive one, but it was good."
"I had a good time getting to know players I've seen only on TV and understanding their personalities."
Ohtani, who hit his first All-Star Game home run last year, was replaced by a pinch-hitter in the fifth.
The AL rallied from a 6-0 deficit and tied the score in a two-run ninth when Steven Kwan of the Cleveland Guardians delivered a game-tying infield single with two outs.
The annual Midsummer Classic then went to the Home Run Derby-style swing-off, with three hitters from each league getting three swings each. Kyle Schwarber of the Philadelphia Phillies went 3-for-3 to give the NL the lead for good at 4-3.
The NL's starting pitcher Paul Skenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates threw a 1-2-3 opening frame, striking out the first two batters and getting Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees to ground out.
Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Los Angeles Angels left-hander Yusei Kikuchi were the other Japanese players selected to the All-Star Game but did not pitch.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Yomiuri Shimbun
16 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Ohtani Hits N.L.-leading 33rd Homer, But Brewers Hold Off Dodgers Again for 9th Straight Win
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Freddy Peralta won his seventh straight start, Isaac Collins and Joey Ortiz homered, and the Milwaukee Brewers held off the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-7 on Saturday night to extend their win streak to a season-best nine. Shohei Ohtani hit his National League-leading 33rd homer and drove in three runs for the Dodgers. Tommy Edman and Miguel Rojas both went deep in the eighth to pull the NL West leaders to 8-7. But then Ohtani's flyball died on the warning track to end the eighth, and Trevor Megill threw a 1-2-3 ninth for his 23rd save as Los Angeles lost for the ninth time in 11 games. Milwaukee improved to 5-0 against the defending World Series champions, including a three-game sweep at home last week. Peralta (12-4) wasn't particularly sharp, giving up four runs and five hits in five innings as his ERA rose from 2.66 to 2.85. But the Brewers tacked on three insurance runs to maintain the lead after he exited, and the All-Star right-hander became the first 12-game winner in the majors. After the teams traded four-run rallies in the third, the Brewers took a 5-4 lead on Collins' 363-foot homer over the short right-field wall in the fourth. They made it 6-4 on Caleb Durbin's RBI double in the sixth. The Dodgers pulled to 6-5 in the sixth when Edman snapped an 0-for-29 skid with a single and Ohtani sliced an RBI single to left. Milwaukee pushed it to 7-5 in the seventh when Andrew Vaughn hit a two-out RBI single, and 8-5 in the eighth on Ortiz's homer. Los Angeles starter Emmet Sheehan (1-1) allowed five runs and seven hits in three-plus innings.


The Mainichi
17 hours ago
- The Mainichi
Basketball: Bulls ink Japan national team star Kawamura to 2-way deal
NEW YORK (Kyodo) -- The Chicago Bulls have signed Japanese men's national basketball team guard Yuki Kawamura to a two-way contract for the 2025-26 season, the NBA franchise announced Saturday. The 24-year-old, who became a free agent after his National Basketball Association rookie campaign last season with the Memphis Grizzlies, impressed in five Summer League appearances for the Bulls, averaging 10.2 points, 2.4 rebounds, 6.2 assists and 2.2 steals in 23.9 minutes. Under the two-way deal, he will divide his time between the Bulls and their affiliated team in the developmental G League. The 173-centimeter Kawamura last season became the fourth Japanese player to appear in the NBA after joining the Grizzlies on a two-way contract. He played in 22 games, averaging 1.6 points and 0.9 assists in 4.2 minutes. In 24 games for the Grizzlies' G League affiliate, the Memphis Hustle, he averaged 12.4 points, 2.7 rebounds and 7.8 assists in 31.0 minutes. Kawamura previously starred for the San-en NeoPhoenix and Yokohama B-Corsairs in Japan's domestic B-League and was a standout performer for head coach Tom Hovasse's Japan team at the 2024 Paris Olympics and 2023 FIBA World Cup.

Nikkei Asia
18 hours ago
- Nikkei Asia
Europe's cut-price raid on J.League talent exposes monetization gap
Sports Spurs' 5m-pound deal for Kota Takai shows how Japan undervalues rising stars Kawasaki Frontale's Kota Takai takes on Al Nassr's Cristiano Ronaldo in the semifinal of the Asian Champions League in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on April 30. Takai's 5 million-pound transfer to Tottenham is the highest for a J. League player moving abroad. © Reuters DAN ORLOWITZ TOKYO -- Newly signed Tottenham center back Kota Takai isn't merely carrying high expectations as the Premier League's latest Japanese import: The 20-year-old's transfer fee of 5 million pounds ($6.7 million) is a record for a Japanese player moving abroad, breaking the 4.5 million pounds set by Kyogo Furuhashi when he moved from Vissel Kobe to Celtic in the summer of 2021. The Yokohama native's transfer is being hailed as a watershed moment for the (Japan Professional Football League) -- and in particular for Kawasaki Frontale, where Takai spent about a decade.