There aren’t many pitchers in baseball who are more difficult to hit than Shohei Ohtani. The two-way superstar is seemingly getting better with each MLB season, and his sweeper is quickly becoming the nastiest pitch in the game.
I think Aledmys Diaz would agree with that.
Ohtani had the fortune of facing the lowly A’s in Thursday’s game at Angel Stadium, and all he did was start the day off with three perfect innings and five strikeouts before hitting a batter by a pitch in the fourth inning. Ohtani’s sweeper was basically unfair when Diaz got caught guessing pitches in an 0-2 count. Ohtani got Diaz to swing at a sweeper that broke over the opposite batter’s box.
Shohei Ohtani getting a swinging K on a Sweeper in the middle of the other batter's box. 😯 pic.twitter.com/M51Vxu4QzQ
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 27, 2023
He’s getting players to swing at pitches that are so outside, they hardly show up on MLB graphics.
The pitch was filthy, but you don’t see big-league hitters look that overmatched too often. But when you have to account for Ohtani’s triple-digit fastball (which also has aggressive movement) and a sweeper, it’s amazing that any player is capable of making contact against Ohtani. He’s simply in incredible form.
MLB fans were also wowed by that pitch and strikeout from Ohtani.