Angels' two-way star Shohei Ohtani continues to put together the highlight-reel season. Tuesday night, he went deep. And we mean real deep.
Behold:
That prodigious blast went 470 majestic feet and is the longest shot of Ohtani's still-young career. Take note of the broadcast discussing how they've never seen a ball that far up next to the batter's eye. Angels manager Joe Maddon had similar sentiment.
"That's the farthest ball I think I've seen hit here," Maddon said (via mlb.com). "I've never seen one hit there before."
Rangers slugger Joey Gallo hit one 490 in that ballpark and Angels starter Andrew Heaney remembered it.
"The Gallo one looked farther, but I can't think of any in recent memory -- that one was absolutely hammered," Heaney said (via mlb.com). "I mean, what more can you say? The guy is just so impressive. It's amazing."
That homer was number 17 on the season for Ohtani. He trails only Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Ronald Acuña Jr. on the MLB home run leaderboard. And, as we know, Ohtani is pulling double duty as a two-way player. As Heaney said, it's amazing what Ohtani is pulling off this season.
Through eight starts, Ohtani is 2-1 with a 2.76 ERA (161 ERA+), 1.16 WHIP and 60 strikeouts in 42 1/3 innings. Through 231 plate appearances, he's hitting .261/.346/.606 (155 OPS+) with 13 doubles, three triples, 17 homers, 44 RBI, 40 runs and nine steals. We're talking about a guy hitting at an All-Star level while pitching like a No. 2 starter who is capable of ace-like work.
Combining the pitching and offense, Ohtani boasts a 3.5 WAR right now -- the best in all of baseball. It'll be interesting to see how Ohtani fares in MVP voting if he keeps this up all season.
Meantime, the Angels have won four of their last five and 10 of 15 as Mike Trout works his way back from a calf injury.
