5 longest home runs ever hit at Dodger Stadium

Despite a predictably shaky start for James Paxton against the Red Sox on Sunday afternoon, which included him giving up two hard-hit balls on his first and third pitches of the game (quick 2-0 deficit), the Dodgers came back in full force to sweep Boston out of LA. Freddie Freeman and Gavin Lux answered the Red Sox with a launched Freeman home run and an RBI double for Lux, and then a dam broke for LA. Needless to say, Freeman's blast did not represent the game's most notable home run.

Teoscar Hernández brought his Home Run Derby Champion boom back home with a solo shot in the third (his 20th of the season), and then even Lux and Austin Barnes got in on the fun. Barnes, the Dodgers' No. 9 hitter, had barely taken a seat in the dugout when Shohei Ohtani stepped up against Kutter Crawford. He saw two pitches outside of the zone, swung at one right at the top, then absolutely devastated a hanging cutter.

It kept going, and going, and going. It almost cleared the walls of the stadium but landed instead in the standing room area out in center. It traveled 473 feet, making it the fifth-longest homer hit at Dodger Stadium (Ohtani's 30th of the season) and allowing Ohtani to add his name to yet another exclusive list.

5 longest home runs hit at Dodger Stadium: Shohei Ohtani joins exclusive list

1. Willie Stargell: 506 ft., 6 in.; Aug. 5, 1969
2. Mark McGwire: 483 feet; May 22, 1999
3. Mike Piazza: 478 feet; Sept. 21, 1997
4. Giancarlo Stanton: 475 feet; May 12, 2015
5. Shohei Ohtani: 473 feet; July 22, 2024

Ohtani's homer was the longest Dodger Stadium has seen since Giancarlo Stanton visited with the Marlins in 2015 and hit one just two feet longer than Ohtani, but that was all the ball needed to clear the walls of the park. An honorable mention goes to Fernando Tatis Jr., who hit a 467-footer off of Tony Gonsolin in 2021 that also managed to clear the wall.

The other three names above Stanton and Ohtani are three legends in the game and two Hall of Famers: Willie Stargell, Mark McGwire, and Mike Piazza, the only other Dodger on this list. Stargell's time as a visitor with the Pirates saw two balls leave the stadium, but the longest was a monster 506 foot, six inch bomb dating back to 1969.

After Sunday's game, Ohtani said he looks forward to hitting one clear out of the park. He's got nine more years and thousands more at-bats to do that, and with the way things have been going so far, we might not have to wait too long to see it.