The accolades are starting to pile in large amounts for the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ Shohei Ohtani, who has regained his pitching form and is beginning to dominate again. Ohtani spent two seasons away from pitching, and the Dodgers’ coaches and front office have made it clear they want him to ease back into things on the mound.
However, the Dodgers are in a tight National League West battle with the San Diego Padres, and Los Angeles could use every bit of Ohtani’s back-to-back MVP contributions. The Dodgers phenom is favored to win his third consecutive Most Valuable Player award, and his second in the NL.
Shohei Ohtani Reaches Milestone Against the Cardinals
In the Dodgers’ Wednesday rubber match against the St. Louis Cardinals, where he also started the game, Shohei Ohtani hit a towering two-run home run for his 1,000th MLB hit.
Ohtani joins Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui as the third Japanese-born player in MLB history to record 1,000 hits. The home run was his 39th of the season, which is just one behind Kyle Schwarber for the NL lead. Ohtani continues to lead the NL in slugging percentage, OPS, runs scored, and total bases. Oh, and in Wednesday’s game, Ohtani also struck out eight batters over four innings pitched and gave up just one earned run. And that one earned run was because Miguel Rojas lost a ball in the sun, and the Cardinals had a bunt single.
The eight strikeouts were a season-high for Shohei, and completing four innings was also a new sight for the two-way star this season. With all the Dodgers pitchers suddenly getting healthy, possibly the one that’s most important to their pitching staff also happened to hit first and has nearly 40 home runs this season. He finished his afternoon on the mound by striking out the side.
Dodgers Need to Finish Strong
As noted, Los Angeles is in a tight divisional race, but the importance of winning the division can not be understated. Every contending team wants to do anything to avoid the three-game Wild Card series. With about 45 remaining on the season, the Dodgers are not playing their best baseball, especially offensively.
The starters are starting to get healthier and healthier, Blake Snell made his return outing, and even Roki Sasaki has begun throwing and is “pain-free.” However, the Dodgers’ bullpen has still been a sore spot, and they are still dealing with underperformance.
The trade additions the team made at the deadline should help depth-wise, but they are not paying immediate dividends, and with two huge series against the Padres this month, Los Angeles could see their slight division lead shrink.
Celebrating the player that Ohtani is, because there may not be another like him. After a season where he unanimously won MVP, his second of ten seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers has been equally good, and fans are starting to see the type of unicorn he is.
Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani Reaches Historical Milestone in Impressive Fashion