SAN DIEGO -- Teoscar Hernández had the sunflower seeds ready. Manager Dave Roberts was just off to the side, smiling broadly. The entire Dodgers dugout was waiting to receive Shohei Ohtani, who was circling the bases after hitting his 45th home run of the season on Sunday afternoon at Petco Park.
But before celebrating with his teammates, Ohtani had a stop to make.
Ohtani veered to the left instead of entering the visitors' dugout to solicit a high-five from a nearby Padres fan wearing a Fernando Tatis Jr. jersey. The fan obliged, somewhat sheepishly, and Ohtani clapped him on the back.
Then Ohtani turned back toward his team, and the Dodgers' typical home run celebrations commenced: Hernández threw a handful of seeds at the two-way superstar, who clapped hands with a beaming Roberts before descending into the dugout.
Who was the fan that Ohtani went out of his way to interact with? According to Roberts, he had been heckling the Dodgers throughout the afternoon, which ended in an 8-2 win over the Padres.
More specifically, he had been giving Ohtani constant reminders of his performance during the weekend series.
"Very annoying, as he’s in my right ear the entire game," Roberts said of the heckler. "But it was out of character from Shohei. He was wearing him out the whole game. So it was good to see Shohei initiate a high-five from him. That was great. That was fun. It was good for Shohei to show his personality."
Before the homer, Ohtani had gone 0-for-10 with a couple of walks in the series. He ensured that he wouldn't go hitless over the weekend by taking Padres lefty Yuki Matsui deep in the top of the ninth, reclaiming a share of the NL lead in homers in what has been a back-and-forth race with the Phillies' Kyle Schwarber.
Ohtani wasn't the only Dodgers hitter to be neutralized this weekend. L.A. combined to record just five hits in the first two games of the series before the bats broke out to salvage the finale. Freddie Freeman went deep twice, including a game-tying shot in the sixth that set up Dalton Rushing's go-ahead three-run blast one inning later.
But until the ninth, the heckler near the visitors' dugout had plenty of material to work with. Until Ohtani changed the tune.
"I'm glad Shohei was able to give him a little something else to cheer about," Freeman said.