Los Angeles Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani delivered his last assist in baseball history during Tuesday night’s start against the reigning champion Astros (HOU-LAA GameTracker). During his final trip to the mound, Otani joined the illustrious Babe Ruth as the only player ever to record 500 career strikeouts as a pitcher and 100 home runs as a hitter.
Ohtani entered Tuesday one start shy of Ruth’s 501 total (some outlets credit Ruth 488 as a pitcher, but Elias credits him with 501), and it didn’t take him long to register the two strikeouts he needed to pass Bambino. Strike #2 came in the second half at the expense of Jeremy Peña:
This is Otani’s 502nd career hit, and it puts him at the top of the list of two-way players in strikeouts and home runs:
Specifically, Ohtani has, as of this writing, 502 hits as a pitcher and 134 home runs as a hitter. Last season, Ohtani first ventured where Ruth had never been when he became her first player MLB History for laying out a qualified number of innings and recording a qualified number of at-bats in the same season.
Entering Tuesday’s start, Ohtani made another 2023 MVP-caliber start with a .301/.369/.526 slash streak and seven home runs at the plate to go along with a 2.54 ERA and AL-59 leading at the mound.
Speaking of MVP, Ohtani won the award in 2021 and was runner-up to Aaron Judge of the Yankees and 62 times last season. The 28-year-old Ohtani is set to become free agency this season, and could end up leading the biggest contract in MLB history.
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