A 10-year-old boy from just north of Tokyo ends up with Shohei Ohtani’s 1st home run of the season

TOKYO — Sota Fujimori is the luckiest 10-year-old in Japan.

Sitting in right-center field on Wednesday night at the Tokyo Dome, he watched Shohei Ohtani’s home run in the fifth inning fall off the hands of another fan nearby — and back onto the field.

It looked like bad luck.

“I thought I missed out at first,” he said, doing an interview afterward in Japanese to explain with a small group of reporters.

Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong made his night, tossing the ball back into the stands.

Young Sota retrieved it as umpires reviewed the play to ensure the ball had cleared the wall and Ohtani had his first home run of the season.

The Dodgers defeated the Cubs 6-3, making Sota’s evening complete. He said it was the first time he’d seen Ohtani in person. The Dodgers also won on Tuesday 4-1, sweeping the two-game series in Tokyo to open the MLB regular season.

Sota is from Saitama, located just north of greater Tokyo. He wore a blue Dodgers shirt and a baseball mitt on his right hand, and he pulled the keepsake ball out of small backpack to show it off.

He looked awestruck but delighted.

Crow-Armstrong confirmed during a postgame interview that he threw Ohtani’s ball into the crowd. Even though he thought the home run call was questionable, he was pleased to hear the ball ended up in the boy’s hands.

“Absolutely, I’m glad,” Crow-Armstrong said.

His parents asked not to take a photograph of their son’s face, and they were reluctant to give many more details. But photos of the ball were OK.

Sota told reporters he is also an outfielder and in the fourth grade.

“I was really surprised,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it. I’m going to keep it as the family treasure.”

AP Baseball Writer David Brandt contributed to this story