Los Angeles Angels two-way thunderclap Shohei Ohtani on Wednesday did things two ways indeed. In addition to twirling eight innings of one-run ball at the expense of the Tigers, Ohtani at the plate also mashed his MLB-leading 40th home run of the season. Honest evening's work, that.
Ohtani this season has dominated the baseball news cycle for his astounding levels of excellence as a pitcher and a hitter. The difference this season is that he's quite often been performing such two-way miracles in the same game.
Relevant content forthcoming:
The Angels, as you know, are an American League squad, which means they have the designated hitter at their disposal. However, on 15 occasions while Ohtani has been their starting pitcher this season, the Angels have forgone the DH in the name of letting Ohtani take his hacks. While the rest of his pitching guild spends those half-innings resting and preparing to once again go at the best hitters in the world, Ohtani is preparing to face the best pitchers in the world (before once again facing the best hitters in the world). That he's able to succeed at both under such strains remains a reliable source of awe.
Speaking of which, the time has come to declare with soaring authority which of these two-way outings have been the greatest of all. In order to infuse this process with some objectivity, we'll highlight Ohtani's greatest two-way outings this season -- i.e., those in which he's started on the mound and also been in Joe Maddon's batting order -- according to the statistic Win Probability Added (WPA).
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How much did a player alter a given game with his performance? This, broadly speaking, is the question that WPA attempts to answer. Basically, WPA tracks a team's percentage of winning a given game -- known as "win expectancy" -- and measures how a given player affects that percentage. RBI double in the early innings of an eventual 12-3 win? The hitter's WPA will go up, but not by all that much. Down 3-2 in the ninth, bases loaded with two outs and the batter strikes out? His WPA for the game is going to take a pretty substantial hit, since that was the quintessence of a clutch situation. Like all measures of "clutchness," WPA is situational and context-dependent, for these quick-and-dirty purposes, however, it'll suffice.
In Ohtani's case, we'll be adding his WPA as a pitcher to his WPA as a hitter for the games in question in order to arrive at his top two-way performances of the season. We'll add the qualifier that an Ohtani in a given outing must have produced a positive WPA on the mound and at the plate in order for that outing to be considered for the rankings.
In all, Ohtani has authored seven games this season in which he's produced a positive WPA as pitcher and as a hitter. Here, ranked according to combined WPA, are his top three performances of the 2021 season thus far.
1. Aug. 18 vs. Tigers
Combined WPA: 0.505
Yep, the most recent entry lords over all. That 0.505 combined WPA (0.446 of which came on the mound) means that Ohtani improved the Angels' chances of winning this game by a whopping 50.5 percent. In other words, he alone was the primary reason they won this game by a score of 3-1. As noted above, Ohtani in eight innings of mound-work allowed only one run while striking out eight and walking none. With the bat, he managed only one hit, but it was a notable one:
Yep, that's home run No. 40, but it's just the second this season that he's hit while in the lineup as the starting pitcher. Overall, this season, Ohtani has batted .238/.319/.500 while otherwise working as a pitcher. Those are strong numbers, but they're obviously well shy of what he's otherwise done at the plate. In some ways, that speaks to the immense challenges of balancing those roles in the same game.
2. July 26 vs. Rockies
Combined WPA: 0.405
At home against Colorado, Ohtani in this one worked seven innings on the mound and allowed one run on five hits while striking out five and walking one. At the plate, Ohtani notched an RBI single and scored a run. As well, he stole a base for the first and only time this season while in the lineup as a pitcher. The Angels won this game by a score of 6-2.
Combined WPA: 0.309
The Halos wound up winning this road game by a score of 6-5. Ohtani pitched five innings and over that span allowed two runs with eight strikeouts and a pair of walks. At the plate, Ohtani went 2 for 4 with a pair of doubles, a run scored, and an RBI. Of particular note is that Ohtani was able to remain in the game despite this in the third inning:
Moments later, he did this:
Really, "remain in the game" sort of undersells it. This game was the third of four so far in which Ohtani, after exiting the game as the starting pitcher, then shifted to right field in order to keep his bat in the lineup.
Just missing the cut was Ohtani's two-way effort against the Astros on May 11 (combined WPA of 0.267) and his game against the Tigers on June 17 (0.259 combined WPA). With another five weeks or so of regular season baseball to go, it's entirely possible Ohtani will outdo himself on this front all over again. Really, we should expect nothing less given how regularly he's defied our notions of the possible.
