'Right place, right time': Dodgers fan snags Shohei Ohtani home run ball in Centerfield Plaza

Jon Kramer couldn’t believe his bad luck.

The 28-year-old data analyst from Culver City and his friends were sitting in loge-level seats along the third-base line at the Boston Red Sox-Dodgers game Sunday. They decided to take a walk to Centerfield Plaza during the bottom of the fifth inning for some food and drinks.

Walking past one of the large video monitors, Kramer noticed Shohei Ohtani was at the plate. He stopped to watch and saw the Japanese superstar hit his 30th home run for the Dodgers this season.

“He hits the home run and my first thought is, ‘I can’t believe I’m watching this on a screen instead of at my seat. We left at the wrong time and blah, blah, blah,’” Kramer told The Times on Monday.

But an estimated two seconds later, Kramer couldn’t believe his good fortune.

“The ball comes flying over the pavilion, lands — it hits a guy behind me like in the chest and hit the ground, and I was just right there and picked it up,” Kramer said.

Ohtani’s bomb off Boston’s Kutter Crawford traveled 473 feet and nearly cleared the roof over the right-center field stands. Instead, it appeared to somehow fly through the small space between the hanging “Daiso” sign and the roof before landing in the plaza area.

“I’ve been going to baseball games my whole life and I’ve never even come close to getting a home run ball, let alone a ball that [nearly] left Dodger Stadium,” Kramer said. “So just right place, right time.”

In the immediate aftermath, Kramer said, he was swarmed by Japanese reporters as well as Dodgers fans looking to have a selfie taken with the ball blasted by Ohtani. He said his fiancee, Julia Brosseau, from Boston, had to quickly remove her Red Sox hat to pose for pictures with him.

Kramer said he left his number with Dodgers personnel in hopes of possibly getting Ohtani to sign the ball. But even if that doesn’t happen, Kramer said, he still has a unique display piece for his desk.

“It’s so surreal,” he said. “The fact that this ball — on ‘Sunday Night Baseball,’ national television, everyone’s talking about it, trending on social media — and it’s like, ‘Yeah, I have that ball.’ So it’s pretty insane. I spent all day just kind of watching replays and, like, basking in how insane this moment is.”