Los Angeles Angels two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani served up his latest helping of baseball history during his Tuesday night start against the reigning champion Astros (HOU-LAA GameTracker). During his last trip to the mound, Ohtani joined the luminous Babe Ruth as the only player ever to register 500 career strikeouts as a pitcher and 100 home runs as a hitter.
Ohtani entered his Tuesday start one shy of Ruth's total of 501 strikeouts (some outlets credit Ruth with 488 strikeouts as a pitcher, but Elias credits him with 501), and it didn't take him long to log the two strikeouts he needed to pass the Bambino. Strikeout No. 2 came in the second inning at the expense of Jeremy Peña:
That's career strikeout No. 502 for Ohtani, and that puts him at the very top of the two-way-player heap for strikeouts and home runs:
Specifically, Ohtani, at this writing, has 502 strikeouts as a pitcher and 134 home runs as a hitter. Last season, Ohtani first ventured where Ruth never had when he became the first player in MLB history to pitch a qualifying number of innings and log a qualifying number of at-bats in the same season.
Entering Tuesday's start, Ohtani in 2023 is off to yet another MVP-caliber start with a .301/.369/.526 slash line and seven home runs at the plate to go with a 2.54 ERA and an AL-leading 59 strikeouts on the mound.
Speaking of the MVP, Ohtani won the award in 2021 and finished runner-up to Aaron Judge of the Yankees and his 62 home runs last season. The 28-year-old Ohtani is slated for free agency this coming offseason, and he may wind up commanding the largest contract in MLB history.
