Wednesday was a special night at Dodger Stadium.
A highly anticipated promotion had finally arrived, as the team handed out bobblehead figures of Shohei Ohtani and his dog, Decoy. The first 40,000 fans to arrive for Wednesday night’s game against the Baltimore Orioles would receive the bobbleheads, with a select few lucky enough to get their hands on a specialized gold figure.
Fans started queuing well ahead of the first pitch, with lines winding around the parking lots at Dodger Stadium:
The lucky recipients of the first gold figurine? None other than Ohtani and the dog of the hour, Decoy, who was on hand for the festivities:
However, Decoy was more than just an observer, as he raced out to the mound to “throw” out the first pitch to Ohtani ahead of the game:
Then, after Walker Buehler pitched a scoreless first inning, Ohtani came to the plate to lead off the bottom of the first for Los Angeles.
He promptly belted his 42nd home run of the season:
The home run kept Ohtani on pace to eclipse 50 homers on the season, and when he stole a pair of bases later in the game that increased his season tally to 42 in that category, keeping Ohtani on pace to become the first 50-50 player in MLB history.
Capping it off, the Dodgers beat Baltimore 6-4, improving to 79-54 on the season and keeping a three-game lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL West.
You might say it was a perfect night at the ballpark.
