Shohei Ohtani shattered multiple records in the Los Angeles Angels' win against the Baltimore Orioles. The first of which was that he was the first starting pitcher that reached base five times. New York Yankee Mel Stottlemyre was the last to accomplish the feat in a 1964 victory over Washington.
More than that, Ohtani went 5-1 in this game which allowed the Angels to dominate the Orioles. In seven innings, he gave up five runs on four hits. Ohtani then hit a 456-foot moonshot homerun that beat out Jeff Samardzija's 446-foot pitcher record in 2017.
In addition, Ohtani became the only pitcher in MLB history to hit a home run, triple, single, and have a walk in a single game. However, he claimed that a lot of this came from a “relaxed” composure at the plate. Shohei through a translator humbly said “I was actually pretty relaxed at the plate today,” Ohtani said. “Hung the curveball in a good spot. I didn’t even really take a hard swing, but the ball went where it went,” per Noah Trister of the Los Angeles Times.
Despite all of this, the Orioles still found a game plan against Ohtani when he was pitching. He yielded 17 runs in 25 innings over his past four starts. He has also given up eight home runs in those same runs that damaged the Angels. In an all-time great performance, Shohei Ohtani proclaimed, “I’m sure all those records come because the sample size is so small, so I don’t really look too deeply into it.”
The Angels and Orioles face each other again on Tuesday as Baltimore pursues the top spot in the AL East Division. On the other hand, another win for Ohtani's Angels would mean that they overtake the Houston Astros for the second spot in the AL West.
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