WASHINGTON (AFP) – Shohei Ohtani delivered another dazzling Major League Baseball first on Thursday, rewarding the Los Angeles Angels’ belief a day after they took him off the trade market.
The Japanese two-way star made his first Major League complete game a dominant one-hit shut-out, then hit two home runs in the second game of a double-header against the Tigers in Detroit.
Ohtani became the first major league player to pitch a shut-out in one game of a double-header and hit a home run in the other.
Ohtani threw 111 pitches and batted five times in the Angels’ 6-0 victory in game one.
Then he then belted two homers ˗ his MLB-leading 37th and 38th ˗ in the Angels’ 11-4 victory in game two.
He didn’t get a chance at a third as he departed the second game early because of cramping.
“He was the story of both games,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “He was the best player on the field for both games. We saw what he does at his best on both sides.”
Hours earlier, the Angels confirmed that they would not seek to trade Ohtani before the end of the season, when he will become a free agent.
Instead they bolstered their pitching staff with the addition of Lucas Giolito and reliever Reynaldo Lopez as they try to get to the playoffs for the first time since 2014.
“We’re going to roll the dice and see what happens,” Angels general manager Perry Minasian said before Thursday’s game one, in which Ohtani gave up one single, in the fifth inning, striking out eight and walking three.
“I feel like he went to another gear today,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said of Ohtani, who had never thrown a pitch in the ninth inning since arriving in the major leagues.
He’d pitched through eight innings on five prior occasions.
In the next game, Ohtani smacked a two-run homer to left field as part of the Angels’ five-run second inning.
He homered again in the fourth.
