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Ohtani's 3rd HR in first 4 games earns him spot in record books

Victor Decolongon / Getty Images Sport / Getty

The legend of Shohei Ohtani has made its way stateside, and it's quickly growing into something special.

Expectations were tempered, of course, and eyebrows were raised following Ohtani's woeful spring training performance - but any concerns have been quickly put to rest after his historic first week in the majors.

The 23-year-old phenom homered again during the Los Angeles Angels' 13-9 win over Oakland on Friday, taking Athletics starter Daniel Gossett deep to center field in the second inning with a 449-foot blast.

Ohtani has now homered in three of his first four games, becoming only the sixth player in major-league history to accomplish the feat, according to MLB Pipeline.

Player Team Year
Mike Jacobs Mets 2005
Trent Oeltjen Diamondbacks 2009
Yoenis Cespedes Athletics 2012
Trey Mancini Orioles 2016
Trevor Story* Rockies 2016
Shohei Ohtani Angels 2018

*Story homered in each of his first four MLB games

Friday's blast also made Ohtani the first Angels rookie to homer in each of his first three home games with the team. Incredibly, it's not even his first appearance in the record books: thanks to his first home run on Tuesday, Ohtani became the first player since Babe Ruth in 1921 to win a game as a starting pitcher and then homer as a non-pitcher in his next game.

After going deep, Ohtani showed patience at the plate on Friday night by drawing a four-pitch RBI walk in the fifth inning. After his brutal spring training, he's now hitting .389/.421/.889 with three homers, seven RBIs, and four runs scored through his first four contests. One small adjustment to his swing late in the spring might have been the catalyst for this red-hot start.

"If you look at some video, he's had a smaller leg kick out there where he's kind of working on not the big kick, which is more sensitive to timing," Angels manager Mike Scioscia told Maria Guardado of MLB.com before Friday's game. "It's not like he's changing his mechanics drastically. This is very much in line with a lot of the swings that we saw that he took in Japan. It's just modified a little bit to where he's closer to the ground and can have a more consistent approach to the ball."

Ohtani will have to wait a few days before building on his ridiculous week at the plate, though, as his next appearance will be as a pitcher against the Athletics on Sunday. Last week, in his first career start, he beat the A's in Oakland, striking out six over six innings of work.

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