It’s Shohei Ohtani’s world and we’re just living in it.
The Los Angeles Angels’ two-way star pitched six shutout innings and hit his 25th home run of the season in Tuesday’s 5-1 win over the Oakland A’s.
In doing so, the reigning American League MVP entered his name in the record book next to New York Yankees legend Babe Ruth.
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Ohtani joined Ruth as the only players in major league history to have at least 10 home runs and 10 wins in the same season. According to the Angels, two players from the Negro Leagues also did it: Bullet Rogan of the 1922 Kansas City Monarchs and Ed Rile of the 1927 Detroit Stars.
Ruth did it in 1918, going 13-7 on the mound while going deep 11 times for the Boston Red Sox in 1918.
“I feel like every time we’re out there he does something special,” Angels interim manager Phil Nevin said. “You try not to take for granted what we’re seeing every night but it’s pretty awesome to be a part of. These things don’t go by us lightly.”
Ohtani singled and scored on Taylor Ward’s three-run homer in the fifth, then connected for a towering drive off Sam Selman leading off the seventh as a throng of red-clan fans sitting behind the Angels dugout roared.
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That moved Ohtani past Ichiro Suzuki for the second-most home runs (118) by a Japanese-born player. Former Yankees slugger Hideki Matsui had 175.
“Obviously we’re very different types of hitters, but if I get to pass Ichiro I’m really honored,” Ohtani said through a translator.
On the mound, Ohtani improved to 10-7 this season with a 2.68 ERA. According to MLB.com, “Ohtani’s five strikeouts brought him to 157 on the season, a new single-season high eclipsing last year’s 156. Going back to his days in Nippon Professional Baseball, he now has over 1,000 strikeouts between NPB (624) and MLB (379).”
MLB’s Sarah Langs had this interesting Ohtani nugget after Tuesday’s game:
Players with 25+ HR at the plate & 150+ strikeouts on the mound in a season: 2022 Shohei Ohtani, 2021 Shohei Ohtani. That’s it. That’s the list.
MORE MLB:
- Red Sox ace Chris Sale is done for the season after ANOTHER injury
- Yankees’ Aaron Judge on track to join exclusive club with legendary Hall-of-Fame sluggers
- Yankees snap the curse of Joey Gallo
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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Mike Rosenstein may be reached at mrosenstein@njadvancemedia.com.
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