Here Are Two More Dope Baseball Things Shohei Ohtani Can Do

One of the most fun things about watching a fresh new baseball darling rack up regular major-league at-bats is all the opportunities to see how the skills you’ve been hearing so much about, all those precious tools, actually manifest themselves on the field. You know a guy has power, but does he have big-boy, opposite-field power? You know a guy has speed, but does he have “I dare you to throw me out” speed?

Friends, I am happy to report that Shohei Ohtani, already the coolest player in baseball, has both of those things:

I’m always here to praise a mighty dinger, but I think Ohtani’s third-inning double may actually be the more impressive highlight. He hit that ball hard, and didn’t leave himself any reasonable amount of time to get to second base. And yet there he was, churning up base path with those long-ass legs, gliding into second.

So now the guy who is one of the Angels’ best hitters and pitchers is also one of the fastest guys on the team. All very normal.

Ohtani pitched six solid innings and allowed two runs while striking out six in his last start. He went 2-for-4 and drove in two runs last night. He’s struck out 32 batters in 26.1 innings. He’s hitting .354/.400/.677 to go along with five homers in 65 at-bats. Again, just extremely normal stuff going on in Los Angeles this year.