How Dodgers' Mookie Betts made history twice by hitting first home run of 2024 MLB season

Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts made Major League Baseball history twice Thursday morning with one swing of the bat.

Betts, a John Overton High School graduate and the Dodgers' leadoff hitter, hit the first home run of the 2024 MLB season — and the first MLB home run on South Korean soil — in the second game of MLB's Seoul Series against the San Diego Padres.

His 400-foot shot to left-center field off Padres pitcher Michael King came with one out and one runner on base in the bottom of the fifth inning of a 15-11 loss. Betts finished the game with four hits, two runs scored, a walk and six RBIs.

Betts' home run made Seoul the seventh country in which an MLB home run has been hit. The other six are listed below.

First home runs hit in every country where MLB has played

United States: Ross Barnes, May 2, 1876

Barnes was a second baseman/shortstop for the Chicago White Stockings (now the Chicago Cubs) when he hit the historic home run, his only one of the season. Barnes led the league that year in runs scored (126), hits (138), doubles (21), triples (14), walks (20), batting average (.429), on-base% (.462), slugging% (.590), on-base-plus-slugging% (1.052), OPS+ (235) and total bases (190).

Canada: Mack Jones, April 14, 1969

Playing left field for the expansion Montreal Expos, Jones' historic homer to right field was hit off St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Nelson Briles with two runners on base and one out on the bottom of the first inning at Parc Jarry. Montreal won the game 8-7.

Mexico: Steve Finley, August 16, 1996

Finley, who played high school baseball in Paducah, Kentucky, hit the first home run in MLB's Mexico Series at Estadio de Beisbol Monterrey while he was playing for the San Diego Padres. It was the first MLB home run hit outside the United States and Canada, and came off New York Mets pitcher Robert Person with one runner on base and one out in the first inning of the Padres' 15-10 victory.

Japan: Shane Andrews, March 29, 2000

In the first season opener played outside North America, Cubs third baseman Shane Andrews belted a first-inning home run against the New York Mets' Dennis Cook with one out and one runner on in the seventh inning of his team's 5-3 victory at the Tokyo Dome. Andrews' home run also was the first hit in MLB in the 2000s.

Australia: Scott Van Slyke, March 22, 2014

At Sydney Cricket Ground, the Los Angeles Dodgers left fielder hit a home run to right field off Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Wade Miley with one baserunner on and one out in the fourth inning of the Dodgers' 3-1 win. Unrelated: One of the Diamondbacks' team buses got a flat tire on the way to the stadium, so some players and staff walked the remaining half-mile to the park.

United Kingdom: Aaron Hicks, June 29, 2019

The first home run in Europe, at London Stadium in England, came off the bat of the New York Yankees center fielder in the first inning with one runner on base and one out against Boston Red Sox pitcher Rick Porcello. Sixteen pitchers were used in the game -- eight by each team -- in a wild 17-13 Yankees win that featured a combined 37 hits. The London Series game was played in front of 59,659 fans.

Mookie Betts' MLB career

Betts is a seven-time All-Star, two-time World Series champion (once with the Dodgers and once with the Boston Red Sox) and was the 2018 American League MVP.

In 2018 he became the first player in baseball history to win an MVP, a Silver Slugger, a Gold Glove, a batting title and the World Series in one year. He signed a 12-year, $365 million contract with the Dodgers in July 2020. At the time it was the largest contract in MLB history. That title now belongs to Betts' teammate, Shohei Otani, who signed a $700 million deal this year.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Dodgers' Mookie Betts makes history twice with season's first home run