The crowds at Tokyo Dome go silent for Ohtani’s at-bats then erupt in cheers for anything he does, but he seems largely unaffected by a level of attention that might be matched by only a handful

Shohei Ohtani met the moment in his return to the Tokyo Dome, because of course he did. In Saturday’s exhibition against the Yomiuri Giants, Ohtani – ever the showman – was quick to slug a home run while wearing a major league uniform in his home country for the first time for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Shohei Ohtani is so talented that it sometimes seems inevitable that he'll deliver a big moment on the baseball field whenever he wants to. In the Los Angeles Dodgers' Saturday exhibition game against the Yomiuri Giants at the Tokyo Dome in Japan,

Yoshinobu Yamamoto has emerged as a potential ace for the Dodgers this season, and he'll take the mound against the Cubs on Tuesday in Japan.

Team officials have stated their mission to “paint Japan blue” and become the nation’s most popular MLB team. But this week, over their first 24 hours in Tokyo for a season-opening trip to Japan, they got to actually feel what being Japan’s team is like.