Photo by Duane Burleson/Getty Images
We have run out of ways to describe Shohei Ohtani
Tim Kurkjian, the noted baseball analyst for ESPN, likes to say that the beauty of baseball is that every time you watch a game, you see something for the first time.
He may need to add a qualifier to the end of that statement:
“ … especially if Shohei Ohtani is playing.”
The two-way phenom etched his name in the halls of history yet again on Thursday, in what is becoming a career filled with firsts. Ohtani and the Los Angeles Angels squared off with the Detroit Tigers in a doubleheader Thursday, and Ohtani was on the bump in the first game.
How did he fare? Ohtani went the distance, pitching a complete-game shutout. It was his first complete-game shutout since joining MLB. Along the way Ohtani struckout eight batters, and allowed just a single hit.
While he went 0-for-5 at the plate in the first game hitting in the second spot in the order, he fared a little better in the second game. In the lineup as the DH, and again in the two spot in the lineup, Ohtani came to the plate in the second inning and did this:
It was his 37th home run of the season, and it set a new mark in MLB history. With the blast, Ohtani became the first player in MLB history to pitch a complete-game shutout in one end of a doubleheader, and to hit a home run in the other end:
As noted by Sarah Langs, the only other player in MLB history to pitch a complete-game shutout in one end of a doubleheader and even get an at-bat in the second end?
Babe Ruth.
Of course Ohtani was not done, and why would he be? Because later in the game he came to the plate and, well, set a new milestone:
We are all witnesses, indeed.
To something we have not seen before, and may not see again for a very long time.
