Table of Content
Major champion and golf course architect Tom Weiskopf has died of pancreatic cancer. His wife says Weiskopf died Saturday at their home in Big Sky, Montana. Weiskopf’s contributions to golf go far beyond his 16 PGA Tour wins and his British Open title at Troon in 1973. He was blunt and accurate when he worked as a TV analyst. And he was equally successful as a golf course architect.
ANAHEIM -- Breaking records is something Shohei Ohtani does with some regularity. 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. Angels' two-way star Shohei Ohtani continues to put together the highlight-reel season.
Ohtani's longest career HR a sight to behold
Keston Hiura homered twice and drove in three runs, and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Chicago Cubs 5-2 to salvage the finale of their weekend series. Rowdy Tellez also connected and Willy Adames hit a tiebreaking sacrifice fly for Milwaukee, which had dropped three of four. The Brewers blew three one-run leads during a 6-5 loss to the Cubs in 11 innings on Saturday. Chicago wasted a stellar performance by Justin Steele, who struck out nine in six scoreless innings. Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki homered, but the Cubs finished with just five hits. Chicago had won five in a row and nine of 12 overall.
The 27-year-old phenom continues to do things that have literally never been done before. Ohtani’s homer traveled a projected 462 feet, which is the fourth-longest of his career. His personal best is 470 feet, done against the Royals on June 8, 2021. It’s the 15th-longest projected distance for a home run in the Majors this year, and the second-longest by an Angel, behind Mike Trout . There’s simply no one in Major League Baseball — and sports, for that matter — like Ohtani, a two-way superstar capable of dominating on the mound and in the batter’s box. And Ohtani reminded everyone of this Tuesday night at Angel Stadium when he launched the longest home run of his MLB career.
Season: 22 Home Runs
The blast easily surpassed the previous longest home run hit by Ohtani, a 451-foot shot off Dylan Cease of the Chicago White Sox on April 4. Justin Upton and Jose Iglesias added to the Angels' lead with solo homers in the fourth, and Taylor Ward capped the scoring with a two-run homer in the eighth. Maddon also said he has no worries about the Home Run Derby adversely affecting Ohtani’s swing or causing an injury. “I’m glad I was able to start things on a good note with a home run,” Ohtani told Japanese media members. "The Gallo one looked farther, but I can't think of any in recent memory -- that one was absolutely hammered," Heaney said. "That's the farthest ball I think I've seen hit here," Maddon said.
To make the entire thing even cooler, on the pitch prior to the dinger, Ohtani nearly got hit in the head. Gilbert lost control of his fastball and sent one soaring extremely high and extremely tight, forcing Ohtani to duck out of the way. The Angels' two-way superstar has had plenty of memorable big flies on his way to 100 homers in the big leagues. And Ohtani came close to adding yet another long ball to his line late in Saturday’s contest. That brought Ohtani to the plate with the Angels trailing by 2. It was the fifth homer Ohtani has hit during a game started by Sandoval this year, the most of any member of the Angels’ rotation.
Left field options for the Yankees
We have to get Ohtani's most prolific homer on the list. The best part of this home run has to be Michael A. Taylor, the center fielder, just standing still and staring up at the ball while it lands in the back of the bleachers. Of nearly 39,000 home runs hit in MLB since 2015, only 130 have gone 470 feet or farther.
It’s also a difficult play for umpires, who have to make a judgment call that’s got plenty of grey area. ANAHEIM -- Two-way star Shohei Ohtani is known for his prodigious power and has put on legendary displays during batting practice. And now he’ll get his chance to show it on the big stage, as he announced Friday that he’s set to participate in the T-Mobile Home Run Derby at Coors Field on July 12. Ever since he signed with the Los Angeles Angels, we’ve been clamoring for a fully healthy season from Shohei Ohtani on both the mound and at the plate. Well, we got it in 2021, and the returns were glorious, ultimately resulting in him running away with American League MVP honors.
American League West
What really gets me, though, is that as I watch Shohei Ohtani home runs, I keep having to remember the dude is also a pitcher. Ohtani became the first player toever have at least eight RBIs in one game and then turn around and strike out at least 10 batters the very next day. Shohei Ohtani is the most electric player in baseball and to say otherwise would simply be untrue.
During the bottom of the third inning against the Mariners, Logan Gilbert left one hanging over the zone. Ohtani made him pay and hit a 462-foot moonshot at 118 miles per hour off of the bat. 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.
Ohtani reached base again in his second at-bat, lacing a third-inning double to right-center field before scoring on a two-run homer by catcher Max Stassi that made it 4-0. Ohtani struck out and drew a walk in his other plate appearances. The AL Central-leading Cleveland Guardians and Chicago White Sox had their game postponed due to unplayable field conditions caused by early morning rain. No precipitation fell for more than three hours before the game was called following a delay of 2 hours, 56 minutes.
Royals starter Kris Bubic (1-1) surrendered four of the Angels' five homers and lasted just four innings. He also has some experience at Coors Field, going 1-for-2 as a pinch-hitter in an Interleague series in May of 2018. Ohtani put on quite a show during batting practice as well, memorably hitting a ball into the third deck in right-center field. He also hit some moonshots within those 46 dingers. Six different homers traveled more than 450 feet , and a whopping 25 owned an exit velocity greater than 110 mph.
Ohtani jumped all over a 2-2 changeup from Bubic for the longest homer of his career, surpassing his previous record of 451 feet set on April 4 off White Sox right-hander Dylan Cease. It was also the fifth-longest homer by an Angels player since Statcast was introduced in 2015 behind four Mike Trout blasts. Trout has hit homers a projected 486 feet (Sept. 5, 2019), 477 feet , 473 feet and 471 feet .
The Angels have hit over 1,000 home runs since Statcast started tracking in 2015 … and Ohtani hit the hardest one of them all. Ohtani ripped this 117.2 mph home run into the right-field bleachers at Yankee Stadium last summer, setting a new Angels record for the team's hardest homer. It's harder than any home run Mike Trout or Albert Pujols ever hit for the Angels. Actually, the record he broke was his own -- Ohtani first passed Trout's previous record of 116.8 mph with a 117.0 mph homer on May 25. The feats at the plate are part of an encouraging recent trend for Ohtani after a somewhat slow start to the season that saw him with an OPS below .700 as late as May 8. Over his last 12 games, Ohtani’s hit .333 (15-for-45) with four homers, two doubles and a triple, raising his OPS from .778 to .832.
What specifically jumps out at you when looking at his stat page was how his offense took off in the final two months of the regular season. Much of the play-by-play, game results, and transaction information both shown and used to create certain data sets was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by RetroSheet. Sign up for the free Baseball Reference newsletter and get scores, news and notes in your inbox every day. The Mariners did, indeed, catch a break, as Ohtani barreled an 0-1 splitter to right at 104.2 mph. But he didn’t quite get enough of it, and the ball landed in Taylor Trammell’s glove for the final out and a second straight Angels loss. Sign up to receive our daily Morning Lineup to stay in the know about the latest trending topics around Major League Baseball.
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. Ohtani is now one back of the MLB lead for homers, currently shared by Ronald Acuna Jr. of the Atlanta Braves and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays. Maddon pointed out that Ohtani is helping grow the game of baseball and that the Home Run Derby could open the eyes of those who aren’t fans of the sport. While Ohtani’s rookie season was limited because of injury, he still flashed the kind of potential we were drooling about when he signed with the Angels.
No comments:
Post a Comment