Who has hit a HR out of Dodger Stadium?

Ohtani's blast nearly joins this short list

July 22nd, 2024

has compiled a long list of feats in his career, and he nearly added another on Sunday night at Dodger Stadium. His 473-foot moonshot off Red Sox righty Kutter Crawford cleared the right-center field pavilion, nearly leaving the ballpark entirely.

Ohtani's 30th big fly of the season still registered as the second-longest homer hit there during the Statcast Era (since 2015). And while Ohtani did not quite join the select club of players to hit a homer completely out of Dodger Stadium, he figures to have plenty more chances in the years ahead.

Dodger Stadium is the third-oldest active ballpark in MLB, having opened its doors in 1962. Since then, only five players (just one of them a left-handed batter) have launched a grand total of six home runs that have left the stadium entirely during game competition. And the list features some of the top power hitters in baseball history. (The Braves' Ronald Acuña Jr. also did it in the first round of the 2021 T-Mobile Home Run Derby, clearing the roof of the pavilion in left-center field for a 472-foot shot.)

Here is a look back at the previous mashers who have launched a home run completely out of Dodger Stadium in game action.

Sept. 30, 2021: Fernando Tatis Jr. (Padres)
467 feet to LF (per Statcast)

Tatis’ father once made an even rarer form of home run history at Dodger Stadium, so perhaps it’s fitting that San Diego’s young superstar put himself on this particular list. While the Padres were closing the books on a disappointing 2021 regular season, the 22-year-old provided a jaw-dropping highlight by crushing a Tony Gonsolin pitch off the pavilion roof and out for his 42nd homer.

“Everybody was just kind of in shock,” then-Padres manager Jace Tingler said afterward, and that about sums it up.

May 12, 2015: Giancarlo Stanton (Marlins)
475 feet to LF (per Statcast)

If there were one active player who was likely to do this, it would probably be Stanton. And the Southern California native, who went to high school less than 15 miles from Dodger Stadium, was up to the task. Early in the first season of Statcast tracking, he got a meaty pitch from righty Mike Bolsinger and obliterated it out of the stadium. So mighty was the swat, Dodgers left fielder Scott Van Slyke didn’t even bother to move as the ball rocketed over his head at 114 mph.

“That was amazing,” said veteran pitcher Dan Haren, then a Marlin and formerly a Dodger. “If anyone is going to do it, it’s him.”

May 22, 1999: Mark McGwire (Cardinals)
483 feet to LCF (estimated)

Big Mac was basically a real-life Paul Bunyan at this point in time, having broken Roger Maris’ single-season home run record the year before and then carrying that into 1999. He launched two big flies in this particular game, with the second (off a visibly distraught Jamie Arnold) not only caroming off the pavilion roof and out but doing so pretty far over into the left-center-field gap.

“He’s done it again, and let’s see where that goes,” said legendary Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully on the air, with obvious awe, as the ball soared toward its destiny. “Gee whiz.”

Sept. 21, 1997: Mike Piazza (Dodgers)
478 feet to LF (estimated)

This was near the end of Piazza’s finest season, when the Hall of Famer hit .362/.431/.638 with 40 homers, while also starting 138 games behind the plate. By the end of the following May, he will have been traded to the Marlins and then on to the Mets. But for now, Piazza was still in Dodger Blue, and when the Rockies’ Frank Castillo hung him a breaking ball, he absolutely did not miss it. Twenty-five years later, Piazza remains the only Dodger on this list.

May 8, 1973: Willie Stargell (Pirates)
470 feet to RF (estimated)

Aug. 5, 1969: Willie Stargell (Pirates)
506 feet to RF (estimated)

It’s remarkable that the only player to hit two balls out of Dodger Stadium didn’t even play for the home team. But Stargell remains one of the greatest sluggers who ever lived, with 475 long balls to his credit, including a number of memorable blasts at parks around the National League. These shots, off Dodgers Andy Messersmith (1973) and Alan Foster (‘69) are also the only two, to this day, hit out of the stadium by left-handed batters.