Home Baseball Fans Amused as Shohei Ohtani Winks at Padres’ Yuki Matsui During Bench-Clearing Incident

Fans Amused as Shohei Ohtani Winks at Padres’ Yuki Matsui During Bench-Clearing Incident

Baseball — 04/16/2024

"Winking during bench clearing time, naughty" - Fans in splits as Shohei Ohtani smiles and winks at Padres

“Winking during bench clearing time, naughty” – Fans in splits as Shohei Ohtani smiles and winks at Padres’ Yuki Matsui during tense bench-clearing incident

There are no dull moments when NL West rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, go head to head in a game. Saturday night’s game saw the Padres’ 2-5 loss against the Dodgers at Dodgers Stadium.

The game also featured a heated bench-clearing confrontation in the fifth inning. Dodgers’ Gavin Stone threw a pitch that almost hit Padres’ Jurickson Profar sparking a verbal exchange between Profar and Dodgers catcher Will Smith.

During the argument, both teams’ benches emptied as players rushed onto the field. After a quick break, both teams returned to their respective benches.

Amid the intense atmosphere, there was a light-hearted moment where Shohei Ohtani was spotted grinning and winking at Padres’ Yuki Matsui. Ohtani and Matsui were part of the Samurai Japan’s 2023 World Baseball Classic roster.

Several fans were buzzing about the hilarious moment in a clip shared on Twitter/X.

“He’s just teasing Matsui, here. Matsui was greeting Shohei taking his hat off,” a fan said.“Shohei winking during bench clearing time, naughty,” a user wrote.

Some other users seized the moment to troll the Two-way superstar:

“He’s smiling because he just hit a four team parlay,” someone wrote.“His parlay hit today. He’s in a great mood,” a comment read.

Shohei Ohtani signed a blockbuster 10-year $700 million contract with the Dodgers at the start of the season.

Shohei Ohtani’s former translator turned himself in and is currently in custody

On Friday, Shohei Ohtani’s ex-translator turned himself in to the authorities. He has reportedly been accused of stealing $16 million from Ohtani to use for illegal sports betting.

According to CNN, the Department of Justice announced:

“This morning, Ippei Mizuhara surrendered to law enforcement and is in federal custody.”

After Mizuhara’s surrender, Shohei Ohtani expressed his gratitude for the Department of Justice’s investigation.

“For me personally, this marks a break from this and I’d like to focus on baseball,” Ohtani said (via CNN).

As to whether this will be the end of the saga remains to be seen.