Teoscar Hernández’s play is just the thing that could push the Dodgers over the top this season!
What did Shohei do?
Well, what about Gavin Stone? He’s coming around at just the right time!
Yeah, yeah, whatever. Get to Shohei
Well, the Dodgers have other stars too, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Who wants to face the Dodgers in the postseason?
He’s hit pace for 51 home runs and stolen 50 bases. 50-50! In his first year with this new team while recovering from surgery! Just get to Shohei!!!
OK, fine. Yeah. There’s no way around it. Shohei Ohtani is always the story. He was the story at the Dodgers game I attended nearly two months ago. He is the story now as he returns as the lone member of the 50-50 club. He’ll continue to be the story. The Dodgers Designated Hitter rookie is sensational, spectacular, and stupefyingly good — the sports world is running out of ways to describe his greatness.
He hasn’t even resumed pitching yet.
You’d think we’d get used to this, seeing it unfold before our eyes. First, he lived up to the expectations in Anaheim. Then, he was the hero of the World Baseball Classic’s perfect ending. But he’s always different on whatever team he’s on, always the story regardless of the other stars on the roster.
“This game has been around for a long time,” Dave Roberts told Jack Harris of the latimes. “And to do something that’s never been done — he’s one of one.”
This game has been around for a long time, and Thursday’s heroics only solidified that this isn’t a normal year and this isn’t a normal season. Because Ohtani isn’t a normal player. So, for now, as it’s always been, it’s all about Shohei. It feels like there’s already nothing left to say about him. But you have to say it anyway.
The baseball season is long, yes, 162 games sure do add up. But every night Shohei is out there, they’re worth watching. The rest isn’t elusive — there’s a larger picture at play — for the Dodgers as a whole. But the games sure do seem a lot less monotonous when there’s a global superstar taking four at-bats a night at Chavez Ravine.
Thursday improved his slash-line to .294/.376/.629. His OPS of 1.005 is nearly 50 points lower than his career-high mark from 2023, a year he was pitching.
But there’s never been anything like this. Two swings only punched another Ohtani ticket into baseball immortality — delivering yet again with the eyes of the baseball world on him.
We’re seeing it, but we’re barely believing it. And that’s why we’ll keep talking about it, probably to the point where we eventually get sick of his greatness.
Don’t count on it.
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WBN Shohei Ohtani Coverage: https://worldbaseball.com/?s=ohtani
