Los Angeles Angels’ star Shohei Ohtani has done plenty of great things on the baseball diamond: Smashing homers, racking up the strikeouts, a display of world-class base-running skills…you name it.
But arguably Ohtani’s best play of the 2023 season is something you won’t see in the stat sheet, and probably never on future highlight reels: A catch on a routine throw from catcher and teammate Chad Wallach during Wednesday night’s game.
The two-way superstar threw a pitch to Los Angeles Dodgers’ outfielder Mookie Betts. Ohtani briefly looked away, just as Wallach threw the ball back to him on the mound…
Fortunately, Ohtani reacted just in the nick of time to catch the delivery from Wallach:
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Unsurprisingly, social media was utterly impressed with Ohtani’s reflexes:
Ohtani pitched a gem for the Angels, going seven innings while allowing just one earned run to go along with 12 strikeouts. Unfortunately, Ohtani didn’t get any offensive support as the Angels fell 2-0 to their Freeway Series rivals.
Ohtani also went 0-for-3 at the plate, though he reached base once on a walk. As a pitcher, he is now 6-3 with a 3.13 ERA and 117 strikeouts. As a hitter, Ohtani is hitting a career-high .292 with 24 homers and 58 RBI to go along with an OPS of 2.8.
The Angels haven’t made the playoffs since the 2014 season, but they entered Thursday night just half a game out of the AL’s final wild card spot.
