Los Angeles Angels' Shohei Ohtani Continues to Rewrite Baseball History Books on Friday
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Los Angeles Angels superstar Shohei Ohtani continued to rewrite the baseball history books on Friday night.
As the Angels toppled the division-rival Mariners by a score of 5-4, Ohtani hit a two-run home run off of Mariners ace Luis Castillo.
That home run was registered off the bat at 112.9 mph, which now gives Ohtani the top-four hardest hit home runs by a starting pitcher in the Statcast era.
Per Sarah Langs of MLB.com:
Hardest-hit HR hit *AS A PITCHER* tracked by Statcast (2015):
4/4/21 Shohei Ohtani: 115.2 mph
9/10/21 Shohei Ohtani: 114.7 mph
5/15/23 Shohei Ohtani: 114.6 mph
TODAY Shohei Ohtani: 112.9 mph
4/2/17 Madison Bumgarner: 112.5 mph
4/2/17 Madison Bumgarner: 112.1 mph
You can also see the home run here, which came on a hanging changeup from Castillo.
The home run was incredibly impressive, and it was also incredibly important. The Mariners had a 2-0 lead at the time and that tied the game at 2-2.
Ohtani continues to be the most unique player we've ever seen in baseball history. At the plate this year, he's now hitting .282 with 17 homers and 44 RBI. He's added nine steals and finished a triple short of the cycle on Friday.
On the mound, he's 5-2 this year with a 3.32 ERA. He's struck out 102 batters in just 76 innings.
He got a no-decision on Friday, going five innings and allowing three earned runs. He walked five and stuck out six.
His ERA for the year is 3.32.
These two teams will meet again on Saturday night at 10:07 p.m. ET.
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