Tag: Shohei Ohtani

Baseball fans crushed Stephen A. Smith after his xenophobic comments about Shohei Ohtani

There’s no place for this.

ESPN’s First Take is a bad show by design. The entire mission behind the show’s manufactured debate between Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman is to draw viewership with its pure outlandishness.

But on Monday, Smith crossed the line from bad sports takes into straight-up xenophobia.

Ahead of Monday’s MLB Home Run Derby in Denver, Smith and Kellerman were discussing whether Shohei Ohtani was good for baseball. Of course, it shouldn’t even be a question about whether a two-way superstar who can hit upper deck home runs AND strike out MLB hitters is good for the game.

Yet, Smith managed to take a contrarian side to the argument in the worst way. He criticized Ohtani, who is from Japan, for needing an interpreter.

WATCH: MLB Home Derby odds and bets with Shohei Ohtani, Pete Alonso

The Post Game previews Monday’s MLB All-Star Home Run Derby, featuring Shohei Ohtani and Pete Alonso with betting odds and picks.

The 1998 MLB season was when Mark McGwire hit 70 home runs, but Ken Griffey Jr. was the slugger who put on a show that fans are still talking about at the Home Run Derby during MLB All-Star festivities at Coors Field in Denver, Col. The All-Star Game is back in the Mile High City, and this time the buzz surrounds Angels star Shohei Ohtani.

Ohtani leads the majors with 33 homers at the All-Star break, so it’s no shock to see he has been installed as the favorite for the Derby. Check BetMGM for the most updated odds.

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Also see: Home Run Derby odds, picks and prediction

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Shohei Ohtani struck out looking on a terrible call and the Angels’ announcer crushed the ump

How was this a strike?

Los Angeles Angels star Shohei Ohtani is in the middle of a historic season that will likely never be forgotten.

He’s currently leading all of baseball with 33 home runs (five better than anyone else) and last week he became the first player in history to be named to the All-Star game as both a fielder and a pitcher (he’s currently 4-1 with a 3.49 ERA).

What he’s been doing has been incredible and must-see TV.

Well, on Saturday night one of his at-bats wasn’t must-see TV thanks to the home plate umpire who called him out on strikes on a pitch that was well outside the strike zone. It was an awful call and Angels announcer Matt Vasgersian crushed the ump after the call:

Awful.

Twitter had reactions:

If Shohei Ohtani keeps this up, he’s AL MVP no matter how mediocre the Angels are

He’s the most valuable, no doubt about it.

This is the online version of our morning newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Charles Curtis is filling in for Andy Nesbitt.

I know, I know. I’m getting waaaaaaaay ahead of myself.

But that’s what Shohei Ohtani is doing to me and — I imagine — other baseball fans.

The thought that keeps crossing my brain every time I see the Los Angeles Angels slugger/pitcher do something amazing on the mound or at the plate is “OMG! OMG OMG OMG!”

The second thought: how could he NOT win MVP if he keeps this up?

I’m aware this is a silly argument. A player who leads the league in home runs (32 as of Thursday morning) and is third in RBI (69), as well as a pitcher who has a 3.49 ERA with 87 Ks in 67 innings is, without a doubt, the most valuable player in all of baseball.

But I’m betting that if the Angels are still out of the running for the postseason by September — to be fair, they have won eight of their last 10, but they’re 9.5 games out of first in the AL West — there will be those naysayers who wonder why the Angels aren’t better if they have the American League’s MVP.

To that I say: c’mon. He’s doing it all and really well. It’s not his fault the Angels haven’t pitched well and Mike Trout has missed time due to injury. Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora said it best earlier in the week: “He’s not the best hitter, he’s not the best pitcher, but if you combine everything, he’s the best player.”

Yep. And if he can dig out a team struggling on the mound that’s missing Trout, there’s even LESS doubt about it.

Quick hits: Bolts win the Cup! … Get to know Noah Lyles … Denny Hamlin’s face is on the hood of his race car … and more.

— The Lightning are Stanley Cup champions once again, and as our Mary Clarke wrote, they’re a dynasty whether you like it or not.

— A shirtless Nikita Kucherov had quite a press conference after the win.

— Our latest Olympic profile: sprinter Noah Lyles, who’s making his Olympic debut.

— You have to see Denny Hamlin’s face on the hood of his race car.

Red Sox pitcher Adam Ottavino had fiery trash talk for Shohei Ohtani after recording final out

That was rude.

For the past few weeks, it had seriously felt like Angels star Shohei Ohtani was hitting home runs on a daily basis. The pitching and hitting phenom leads the league with 31 homers, but Monday’s matchup with the Red Sox did not include a Ohtani dinger, sadly.

It did, however, have its share of trash talk from Red Sox reliever Adam Ottavino.

As the Angels rallied from four runs down against Boston to cut the deficit to a run, Ohtani was at the plate with two outs and runners on second and third in the ninth. Ohtani would end up smoking a line drive right into the shift in shallow right field to end the game.

But keep an eye on Ottavino after he got Ohtani to hit into the final out. It sure looked like he had some choice words for the Angels star.

Some lip-reading guesses had Ottavino referencing Ohtani’s birthday, which was Monday, in a NSFW manner.

But still, that was a pretty odd reaction from Ottavino. He has every right to be pumped about recording the save against one of the game’s most dangerous hitters. But there’s a difference between celebrating and blatantly taunting an opponent for no reason.

Ottavino crossed that line.

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A reporter traveled from Pittsburgh to New York to see Shohei Ohtani play for just one inning

“I mean if I can’t laugh what am I even doing?”

Shohei Ohtani is, without a doubt, one of the most exciting baseball players to watch right now. Ohtani is the MLB’s current leader in home runs (28) as he continues to crush baseball after baseball en route to one of the most awe-inspiring seasons we’ve seen from a player of his caliber.

It’s no wonder that Adam Gretz, hockey writer for NBC Sports, wanted to take a trip to New York to see Ohtani play, as the Pittsburgh native wouldn’t have the opportunity to see him come through his city this year with the Los Angeles Angels. And why not? Ohtani had been on a roll recently and was surely set to pitch yet another dime or hit yet another home run.

Instead, what followed was some of the most hilariously painful endings for a sports fan. On Wednesday against the New York Yankees, Ohtani pitched just one inning — 0.2 innings to be precise — allowing two hits, four walks, seven earned runs, and had 41 total pitches, touching the batter’s box only once before being pulled.

And yet, the Angels did win Wednesday night’s game 11-8 after Jared Walsh hit a game-tying grand slam in the ninth inning, but only after Gretz left due to a rain delay! Here are some of Gretz’s best tweets from his trip, which started strong but ended in the most sports way possible.

Yankees’ Nestor Cortes Jr. uses every trick in the book to get Shohei Ohtani out

It worked!

Shohei Ohtani is nearly impossible to stop right now.

He’s leading the majors in home runs with 28 after hitting two huge dingers on Tuesday night, giving him 13 in June.

The only man who could stop him was … Nestor Cortes Jr.

I’m serious. The New York Yankees reliever actually did an amazing job on Tuesday night getting Ohtani to hit a long fly ball for an out, but he had to resort to some tricks in order to do it.

Cortes — known for changing up his arm slot — got him swinging and missing with a three-quarter arm slot pitch. He followed up by delaying his next pitch as he went into his windup, which was interrupted by the home plate ump. With Ohtani laughing, Cortes quick-pitched him for a ball.

Then? A side-armer for the pop-up. Amazing.

Seriously, this is totally his thing. Check out what he did to Bryce Harper last week, which is probably what he was attempting Tuesday before the ump stopped play:

Cortes has a 1.02 ERA, so maybe he knows what he’s doing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjKXgqwrHxs

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Notre Dame product Trey Mancini to compete in Home Run Derby

The Irish will have representation for the return of the Home Run Derby.

For the first time, Notre Dame will have representation in Major League Baseball’s Home Run Derby. That representation will come from Baltimore Orioles slugger Trey Mancini. The Irish baseball Twitter account sent its congratulations his way:

Mancini has 14 home runs this season and is among the major-league leaders in RBIs with 52. He joins a field that currently has Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angels Angels and defending champion Pete Alonso of the New York Mets. The field will be rounded out with five more participants before the event is held July 12 at Coors Field in Denver. It will serve as a tuneup for the All-Star Game the next day.

Mancini is in the middle of quite the comeback season after he missed 2020 to be treated for Stage 3 colon cancer. However, the Orioles are dead-last in the American League and pretty much have no further use for Mancini’s services. It’s likely he gets moved at or before the trade deadline, and there are a few teams that could benefit from him.

 

The sound Shohei Ohtani’s bat made when he connected with his 25th home run was unreal

The SOUND this HR made. Wow.

What Shohei Ohtani is doing this season with the Los Angeles Angels is absolutely incredible and will end up being a year that no baseball fan soon forgets.

He added to his special season on Sunday with another incredible moment as he crushed his 25th home run against the Rays in Tampa. He’s also currently 3-1 as a pitcher in 11 starts and has an ERA of just 2.58.

But let’s get back to his home run on Sunday because you need to hear what this thing sounded like. MLB thankfully shared this great video of his blast and the sound that it made at contact is just unreal.

Check this out:

I mean, whaaaaaaaaat?

Twitter had reactions:

7 unbelievable stats from MLB home run leader (!) Shohei Ohtani

The pitcher/slugger is having an unreal season.

Nope, you are not dreaming: Shohei Ohtani hit his 13th home run on Monday night in a win over Cleveland, and the pitcher/slugger is now the home run leader in all of baseball.

After a few years of struggling with injuries to start his Major League career, he’s having the kind of season that’s shutting up any doubters who thought a player can’t pitch and hit on a regular basis. If he keeps this up — to be fair, we are a month and a half into the 2021 season, so we’ll see! — the MVP talk might be truly real even if the Los Angeles Angels aren’t that good.

So let’s run through some amazing Ohtani stats heading into Tuesday’s MLB action: