Shohei Ohtani can truly do it all.
The Los Angeles Angels star dominated the Houston Astros in Wednesday night’s 6-0 victory. Perfect through five innings on the mound, he finished with 12 strikeouts over six scoreless innings.
While Ohtani allowed one hit and one walk in the sixth, he single-handedly outdid Houston’s lineup. The 27-year-old phenom went 2-for-4 with a walk, double, and two RBI as the Angels’ leadoff hitter.
11 Ks already for Shohei Ohtani 😱 pic.twitter.com/mol7gaH4Xu
— MLB (@MLB) April 21, 2022
The Angeles scored all six runs in the top of the first, so Ohtani already reached base twice before throwing his first pitch. As noted by Jeremy Frank, that’s unsurprisingly a first in MLB history.
Shohei Ohtani is the first starting pitcher to bat twice before taking the mound in any game that @baseball_ref has play-by-play data for.
— Jeremy Frank (@MLBRandomStats) April 20, 2022
There also probably aren’t many (or any) starting pitchers who have successfully bunted for a base hit while taking a perfect game into the sixth.
11 K’s.
5 Perfect Innings.
1 Bunt Single😂
Ohtani has the Angels (+105) in a pretty good spot📈 #GoHalos pic.twitter.com/rtY6EGdui1
— MaximBet (@MaximBetUSA) April 21, 2022
MLB researcher Andrew Simon pointed out that Ohtani has now done something twice that has only occurred three times in the Angels’ 62 seasons.
There have been just 3 scoreless pitching performances in Angels history with 12+ Ks, no more than 1 BB and no more than 1 hit.
Nolan Ryan had 1.
Shohei Ohtani now has 2.— Andrew Simon (@AndrewSimonMLB) April 21, 2022
Baseball reporters are in awe of what they’re witnessing from the reigning AL MVP.
Shohei Ohtani taking the mound with a perfect game in progress but also with his uniform dirty from running the bases. Will never get old. pic.twitter.com/K2bDAjaTOD
— Alden González (@Alden_Gonzalez) April 21, 2022
Seriously…HOW lucky are we to witness Shohei Ohtani?!
Even with the bid over…he is SO incredible to watch
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) April 21, 2022
thousands of years of human history and we’re so lucky to be living at the same time as shohei ohtani
— kennedi landry (@kennlandry) April 21, 2022
Ohtani is coming off a one-of-a-kind campaign in which he tallied 46 home runs, 26 stolen bases, and a .965 OPS as a hitter while posting a 3.18 ERA and 156 strikeouts in 130.1 innings. As extraordinary as it seems to consider, he may be getting better.
The post MLB World Reacts To Shohei Ohtani’s Performance Tonight appeared first on The Spun.