You know what? I'm running out of ways to describe Shohei Ohtani. The man is simply absurd.
Six innings. Zero hits allowed. Seven strikeouts. One earned run. And oh yeah - he led off the game with a home run.
Because of course he did.
Final line: 6.0 IP, 0 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 7 K. That's a dominant pitching performance by any measure. The fact that he also went deep at the plate? That's just Ohtani being Ohtani.
His season ERA now sits at 0.82. Zero point eight two. That's not a typo. Through multiple starts, he's giving up less than a run per nine innings while also crushing baseballs as the Dodgers' leadoff hitter.
I've been covering sports for 20 years. I called games back in my radio days when everyone thought two-way players were a thing of the past. That specialization had made the Babe Ruth model impossible in modern baseball.
And then Shohei Ohtani showed up and said, "Hold my bat."
Here's what makes this performance particularly special: six no-hit innings is remarkable. But he also walked four batters and gave up an earned run without allowing a hit. That's baseball being baseball - sometimes the weirdness happens. And Ohtani still dominated.
The Dodgers knew exactly what they were getting when they signed him to that historic contract. They're getting a legitimate ace on the mound and a middle-of-the-order bat. Except he's batting leadoff because why not add another wrinkle to the impossibility?
Every start, you wonder: is this the game where he's mortal? Where the workload catches up to him? Where he looks like a regular player instead of a video game character?
And every start, he answers with something ridiculous. A no-hitter through six with a leadoff bomb. Because that's just what Shohei Ohtani does.
I don't know how long this run lasts. Father Time is undefeated, and the demands of being an elite pitcher and hitter will eventually take their toll. But right now? Right now we're witnessing something that's never happened before and might never happen again.
Leadoff home run. Six no-hit innings. An ERA under 1.00.
That's not baseball. That's art.
And folks, that's what sports is all about - watching someone do things we've never seen before and might never see again.
