This week, for the first time in Major League history, a player struck out 10 opponents, drove in two runs and stole a base in the same game. Given the characteristics of the fact, the protagonist cannot be other than the Japanese shōhei ohtanithe Angels phenomenon that continues to impress with its performance from the mound and with the wood.
At loanDepot park in Miami, Ohtani was too much for the Marlins last wednesday july 6. The right-hander threw seven innings at a rate of two hits and an unearned run allowed, with ten opponents retired by way of strikes. As if that were not enough, wood at the ready produced two entries, went through the register once and got a scam, his tenth of the season.
Ohtani is exposing all the specialists and fans — among whom I include myself — who predicted his specialization in a single role, ruling out the option of remaining a two-way player in MLB. “He will not be able to shine as a pitcher and as a hitter at such a demanding level”, many of us thought, but obviously we were wrong.
If one piece of information perfectly illustrates the dominance of the Japanese, it is slugging with men in scoring position. Spoiler: In the last 50 years, no one has been better than Ohtani at this department, whether it’s hitting or throwing.
* Highest slugging percentage by a batsman with men in scoring position in the past 50 years (at least 400 plate appearances): Shohei Ohtani (.621)
* Lowest slugging percentage allowed by a pitcher with men in scoring position in the past 50 years (at least 200 batters faced): Shohei Ohtani (.201)
It is not surprising then that the Japanese has been selected as one of the starters of the next All-Star Game, which will be held in a week in Los Angeles. The Angels star was selected as the designated hitter of the American League, ahead of Cuban Yordan Álvarez in a very close race that was defined on the last day of voting.
Yordan vs. Ohtani: the vote of discord
As it is we had predictedlast Saturday Yordan Alvarez was named Player of the Month in the American League, after completing a spectacular June. The central Colombia player from Las Tunas led the young circuit in RBIs (28), average (.418), on-base percentage (.510), slugging (.835) and OPS (1.346), in addition to dispatching nine home runs and 14 extra-base hits in 23 matches.
Yordan currently leads all of the Majors in slugging (.663) and OPS (1,073), is third in home runs (26), sixth in RBIs (60) and ninth in batting average (.311), after a week in which he connected seven hits and six of them were extra-base hits. Among these long-range hits, he highlighted a game-winning homer (the first of his career) against Kansas on July 4.
As we said, all these arguments allowed Álvarez to fight until the last day of voting for the starting DH position in the All-Star Game with a media phenomenon like Ohtani, who has two fan bases (in his country and in Los Angeles) far superior to those of the Cuban.
However, some have understood the results of the voting for the All Star as unfair, but what is truly unfair is putting Ohtani to compete with the rest of the players. The Japanese, as long as he performs, should have his safe space in the star show, without the need to eliminate with anyone in a specific position.
Do you think that would be an extreme solution? Probably yes, but this is an extraordinary player we haven’t seen in 100 years since Babe Ruth. This detail is just what Yordan should look at now and not sink because of the votes, after all, he will also be in the All-Star Game, his first of many.
The spell of Néstor Cortés
Cleveland’s Dominican third baseman, José Ramírez, is part of the select group of players who have achieved seasons with more than 35 home runs and less than 90 strikeouts on multiple occasions in this century. Only 12 players have achieved that combination more than once from 2000 to date: Albert Pujols, Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield, Rafael Palmeiro, Brian Giles, Vladimir Guerrero, Aramís Ramírez, Adrián Beltré, Steve Finley, Chipper Jones, Mike Piazza. and the aforementioned José Ramírez.
In this 22-year span, major league strikeout rates have increased dramatically and so has home run production. It is common for many homers to be hit, but it is not common for sluggers to have a strikeout count below 100. That is why what was achieved by the third baseman of the Guardians is so striking, whose maximum structured in a campaign is 87 in 2021.
Ramírez has never had a campaign with more than 18 games of at least two strikeouts, and in this 2022 only on three occasions has he been removed by way of strikes on more than one occasion in the same challenge. One of those fatal duels was last saturday july 2when the Cuban-American Néstor Cortés prescribed three “chocolates”.
Leaning on his fastball and his cutter, the Yankees left-hander punished the star third baseman and became only the fourth pitcher to strike out Ramírez three times in the same game. Before they had only achieved:
* David Price (September 1, 2014)
* Anthony DeSclafani (July 6, 2019)
*Justin Verlander(July 30, 2019)
This is another merit to add to the already long list of successes for Cortés, who has become one of the fundamental starters in the New York rotation this season. The left-hander leads the Yankees in ERA (2.74) and is second in strikeouts (95) and in on-base percentage per inning (WHIP) with 1,026, ranked among the top 20 in MLB in these sections.
The Gurriel add three by three
This Friday night the Gurriel brothers lit the fuse on the west coast of the United States. Yulieski returned to the Houston Astros lineup after recovering from leg ailments and had three hits with an RBI in Oakland, while lourdes jr. He did not want to be left behind and imitated him with the same performance in Seattle.
For Yulieski, it was a vindicating day, because he had not connected three hits in a duel since last June 17. In addition, he increased his double count to 24, leading the Astros and eighth among all major leaguers. Yunito, for his part, achieved his second clash of three rockets in the current month of July, in which he has already played four multi-hit matches.
However, the truly curious thing is that the Gurriel brothers had not hit three hits on the same date since July 16, 2019, almost three years ago. That day, Yuli hit two singles and a double against the Angels, while Yunito had tubey, triple and single against Boston.
Before that occasion, the brothers had only managed three hits in the same day on September 21, 2018, when they also managed to hit two home runs in a game during the same date for the first and only time.
Yulieski and Lourdes Jr. have five games with at least three hits this season, which has allowed them to establish themselves among the Cubans with the most three-hit games in recent years. Since 2017, his first full season in MLB, Yulieski is the second Cuban with the most games (55) of three or more hits, only surpassed by José Abreu (58). Yunito, for his part, has 38 in the last five campaigns (2018-2022), third among all Antilleans in that period, behind his older brother (42) and “Pito” (41).
Cionel Pérez, hermetic
Baltimore Orioles Cuban left-hander Cionel Pérez has retired each of the 13 batters he has faced in four different games this July. The man from Matanzas is experiencing an absolute explosion and in 33 relief games he has been batted .238, with a poor slugging rate of .287, because of the 114 batters he has faced, he has only been hit three extra-base hits.
In fact, in his last nine starts he hasn’t allowed a double, triple or home run, and no runs have been scored on him either. Quietly, without attracting too much attention, he has become a very important arm for the Orioles in the late games and already has ten holds.
His work in the most recent dates has helped him lower his 0.96 ERA after 28 innings of work, in which he has only allowed three earned runs. The left-hander has 27 strikeouts and 11 walks, perhaps his lowest point, although he has gone ten straight without transferring anyone.
