To recap, this is what Shohei Ohtani accomplished over the past eight days:
Won his major league pitching debut, allowing three runs over six innings.
Homered in his first at-bat in front of the reebok nfl jerseys Los Angeles Angels’ home fans, a three-run homer in the first inning off Josh Tomlin.
Hit a two-run homer the next night off reigning Cy Young winner Corey Kluber in the fifth inning to tie a game that the Angels eventually won 3-2 in extra innings.
Following an off day, homered for the third straight game, a mammoth 449-foot blast near the waterfall in left-center at Angel Stadium, to jump-start the Angels as they rallied from a 6-0 deficit to the Oakland Athletics.
In his first start at home, took a perfect game into the seventh inning on Sunday against the A’s and finished with 12 strikeouts, one hit and one walk over seven frames, while registering 25 swing-and-misses — the most in the majors in 2018.
Maybe aside from some postseason pitching performances, it might have been the most exhilarating individual week and one day in major league history.
You can call that an exaggeration, and maybe you’re more impressed by Johnny Vander Meer’s back-to-back no-hitters over five days in 1938 or Ken Griffey Jr. matching Don Mattingly and Dale Long with home runs in eight consecutive games in 1993. But Ohtani pitched, he slugged, he dominated and the Angels went 5-0 in the games he played — all in his first full week in the majors.
Ohtani’s best splitter might have been his final pitch of the outing. Marcus Semien had broken up the perfect game when he lined a base hit into left field off a 2-0 fastball. After a walk and groundout, Matt Olson came up with two outs and runners at second and third. Ohtani was tiring and this was pretty clearly his final batter, nfl authentic jerseys as the bullpen was getting loose. Olson laid off two splitters to get ahead in the count 3-1. Ohtani then painted the outside corner with a 98 mph fastball. I think everyone knew the splitter was coming, even Olson. He couldn’t lay off it this time. Swing, miss, seven shutout innings.