It’s truly remarkable to witness what Shohei Ohtani is accomplishing this season.
The Angels pitcher and designated hitter hit two home runs on Monday night to give him 32 on the season, which followed Saturday’s impressive eight innings of one-run ball on the mound. This season alone, Ohtani has six games of at least two home runs and nine game of 10 or more strikeouts on the mound. No other player has had more than six of each such games over his career.
It makes the Angels’ mediocrity all the more befuddling. The team has two generational talents between Ohtani and Mike Trout, but they haven’t won a playoff series since 2009. The Ohtani-Trout pairing is set to miss the postseason for yet another season. But if you needed to see the perfect encapsulation of Ohtani’s Angels, just check out the team leaderboard.
The Angels' team leaders page is just Shohei Ohtani 😅 pic.twitter.com/ogb26Y8zNK
— Sporting News MLB (@sn_mlb) September 6, 2022
Ohtani leads the Angels is every major hitting and pitching category. He’s putting together an MVP-caliber season with a statistical output that shouldn’t even be possible. Yet, his team is still 28 games out of first place.
There truly is a new “Tungsten Arm” O’Doyle moment everyday.
every time I see an Angels highlight it's like "Mike Trout hit three homes runs and raised his average to .528 while Shohei Ohtani did something that hasn't been done since 'Tungsten Arm' O'Doyle of the 1921 Akron Groomsmen, as the Tigers defeated the Angels 8-3"
— ℳatt (@matttomic) May 18, 2021
But there’s no denying Ohtani’s value. No wonder MLB fans had thoughts about Ohtani’s across-the-board dominance for the Angels this season.