Shohei Ohtani breaks Hideki Matsui’s record, both DH’s pay respects

Current DH of the LA Angels, Shohei Ohtani, hit his league-leading 32nd home run on Wednesday.

That home run broke the record of most home runs in an MLB season by a Japanese-born player, which was held by the former DH of the LA Angels, Hideki Matsui.

Yes, he broke the record in just his 81st game of the season. He still has half a season left to keep clubbing home runs.

Hideki Matsui was quick to recognize what LA Angels’ superstar slugger, Shohei Ohtani, has accomplished.

Shohei Ohtani has a huge fan in former LA Angels‘ designated hitter, Hideki Matsui. Here’s what Matsui had to say about Ohtani breaking his record.

Matsui is a class act. He’s rooting for the Angels, he’s rooting for Ohtani, and he’s rooting for the best thing that’s happened to baseball this year.

Ohtani had quite a bit to say about his admiration for Matsui as well.

It certainly is quite an honor. Matsui was quite the slugger himself, making the All-Star team twice, and winning a World Series MVP for his efforts in the New York Yankees World Series Championship in 2009. He was very impressive offensively, and could scrap in the outfield too.

He set the record Ohtani just broke in 2004 with his 31 home runs. He used to tee off every pitcher he faced. Check out how he did prime Pedro in that ’04 season:

The craziest part about this was what happened before the homer in Ohtani’s at-bat.

Ohtani got beat up in the AB, and still found a way to go yard. That’s the type of player he is. The current AL MVP is having the greatest season in MLB history.

The best part about seasons like these are the moments like this that come along the way.