The strikeout pace of Shohei Ohtani (29, LA Angels) is scary. He reached 500 strikeouts in the second fewest innings in MLB history. The opposing team couldn’t keep their mouths shut either.
Ohtani played as the team’s starting pitcher and third hitter in the 2023 Major League away game against the St. Louis Cardinals held at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri, USA on the 4th (Korean time).
On this day, Ohtani did not look very good on the mound. After being hit by a solo shot by Gorman, who was surprised three times from the end of the first inning, he gave up another run with two consecutive hits in the fourth inning as well as the start of the inning. He then scored his fourth run when Dylan Carlson’s mid-month two-run four broke out. Going down with the team trailing 3-4, Ohtani couldn’t even get a start.
However, Ohtani consistently made as many strikeouts as he did. Starting with striking out all outs in the first inning, he struck out eight out of nine outs through the third inning. Considering that the only thing that wasn’t a strikeout was that the runner on first base took advantage of a bounce pitch and was tagged out while heading to second base, all out counts at bat were strikeouts.
This pace continued even after that. Ohtani, who added two strikeouts in the fourth inning, struck out all three batters except for Gorman’s hit in the fifth inning. Up until the fifth inning, out of 15 outs, 13 were strikeouts.
Ohtani, who had a rather large number of pitches up to the 5th inning with 97, was replaced and went down the mound with the start of the 6th inning. On this day, he recorded 5 hits (2 homers), 1 walk, 13 strikeouts and 4 runs in 5 innings on the mound. He broke the 500th strikeout mark in his career in the big leagues, and according to Sarah Langs of MLB.com, he occupied this height in 388⅔ innings, and he achieved it in the second fewest innings after Corbin Burns (Milwaukee, 365 innings).메이저놀이터
It was batter Ohtani who helped pitcher Ohtani. Ohtani, who reported a hit even before he climbed the mound in the first inning, gave the Angels a 2-1 lead with a timely hit in the third. Then, in the beginning of the ninth inning when the team was leading 5-4, he hit a double, and hit home when the next batter, Anthony Rendon, hit at the right time. On this day, ‘Tatani’ recorded 3 hits, 1 RBI and 1 run in 5 at-bats. The team also erased the defeat of ‘Tutani’ with a come-from-behind victory 6-4.
The opposing team couldn’t help but be amazed. The same was true of outfielder Lars Nuthba, who contributed to the championship by eating rice with Ohtani in the last World Baseball Classic (WBC). According to Japanese media Sponichi Annex, Nutba, who dedicated three strikeouts to Ohtani that day, said after the game, “It was a really tough game. I faced a great pitcher.” “Ohtani has a very good ball. There is,” he said, sparing no praise.