What new record did Los Angeles Angels’ Shohei Ohtani just set?
The two-way star just can’t stop claiming records and in his most recent outing, he demonstrated once again why he’s the best in the business right now.
If you feel like you’ve read or heard the words ‘Shohei Ohtani makes history’ before, that’s probably because you have and likely more than once. Apparently, that’s what the Angels star does.
Shohei Ohtani makes MLB history...again
On Tuesday, Los Angeles Angels two-way sensation Shohei Ohtani was at it again, as he wrote his name into the history books once more, during his team’s 5-1 victory against the Oakland Athletics. How did he do the deed?
For starters, Ohtani became the first American League pitcher to hit a home run and throw six scoreless innings, in the same game since Dave McNally completed the feat with the Baltimore Orioles back in 1972. Interestingly, the day on which made is mark was actually August 9th, making it 50 years to the day according to ESPN. There is one difference between the two, however, in that McNally’s performance came before the 1973 introduction of the designated hitter. Ohtani on the other hand was playing as both the Angels’ starting pitcher and their DH, which means he stands alone.
How did Shohei Ohtani’s performance go down?
As mentioned above Ohtani finished the night with six innings in which he shutout the A’s. In total, he gave up four hits and three walks while striking out five batters to the tune of 91 pitches. Incidentally, he was actually hit by a pitch in the third inning and could be seen limping off the field in the moments that followed. It wasn’t long, however, before the star was back on the field and showing no signs of discomfort. One can imagine that Oakland’s players were not thrilled.
Where offense is concerned, Ohtani got two hits on the board on the night, with one of them being his 25th home run of the season. With that, he took his career total of HRs to 118 and in doing so, moved above Ichiro Suzuki for the second-most in Major League Baseball by a Japanese-born player. Who’s the first? Hideki Matsui, with his total of 175 homers is the last man standing in Ohtani’s way on his march to supremacy. According to MLB, Ohtani has now posted two seasons in which he put more than 25 home runs on the board, while striking out in excess of 150 batters. In case you’re wondering, those two campaigns are the only ones like them that exist in MLB history.