What does Shohei Ohtani (30) of the Los Angeles Dodgers look like as a batter? Probably as good as Aaron Judge (32) of the New York Yankees. It really seems that way.
Ohtani started as the second designated hitter in an away game against the Washington Nationals in the 2024 Major League Baseball (MLB) regular season at Washington Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. on the 25th (Korea time), and contributed to his team’s 11-2 victory by making three hits, two RBIs and two runs from six times at bat. The Dodgers, which has recently won three consecutive games, has maintained its No. 1 ranking in the Western Division with 15 wins and 11 losses overall.
Ohtani had no home run on the day, but all three of his hits were doubles. His batting average increased from 0.364 to 0.371, while his OPS, which includes his on-base hit rate of 0.433 and his slugging rate of 0.695, rose to 1.128.
Ohtani’s bat took turns from the first inning. Taking the batter’s box with one out and no runner at the first inning, Ohtani opened the scoring with a double that cut through the outfield in the right-center field. Then, with two outs, he hit a home run with Will Smith’s timely hit to score the first run.
With Ohtani opening the door, Dodgers hitters were battered. After Gavin Lux’s infield hit and Andy Frazier’s double in the second inning had a chance to second and third base with two outs, the Dodgers ran away with Mookie Betts’ timely hit. Washington immediately chased Nick Senzer with a home run and Joey Menez’s walk, but the Dodgers ran away much faster. After Smith hit a double in the middle in the third inning with one out and no runner, Max Muncy called in to add another run, and after Smith’s infield hit and Muncy’s double in the fifth inning, Lux’s right-handed hit with two outs added two more runs.
The Dodgers beat the Washington mound until the very end. In the eighth inning, Frazier completely beat Washington’s momentum with a solo home run. Ohtani then hit an RBI double to left-center, and Freddie Freeman also hit a timely two-run homer to continue his performance.
His batting performance on the day has made Ohtani’s batting report even more impressive. He ranks first in batting average, slugging percentage and OPS, and is also No. 1 in overall hits (39), doubles (14) and total hits (73). He has six home runs to rank No. 1 in the National League (Marcel Ozuna 9) and No. 1 in the American League (Mike Trout 10), but his other batting performances are sufficiently overwhelming the league.
It is also noteworthy that the league is similar to his rival Judge’s best season in dominance. Judge hit a new American League home run record of 62 in 2022, beating Ohtani to become the MVP of the American League. At the time, Judge hit a batting average of 0.311 with an on-base percentage of 0.425 with an on-base percentage of 0.686 with 62 homers, 131 RBIs and 133 runs scored, an overwhelming 209 in wRC+ (adjusted scoring productivity), which represents batting productivity compared to the league average. Other than Barry Bonds (2001-2004), Judge was the only one who exceeded wRC+ 200 in the 21st century. Considering that Bonds had controversy over illegal drugs, Judge’s season was the best hitter of the 21st century.
However, Ohtani’s pace is comparable to that of Judge’s career high. The home run pace has yet to reach 40 homers in a full season. However, Ohtani is displaying an unprecedentedly great season in contact with Judge. As of Saturday, wRC+ is 207, 스포츠토토 which is on par with Judge’s in 2022.
Ohtani, who was known to have weak performance in April, is also likely to see his performance improve further. Having shown poor performance in April last year, he played in 27 games in June with 15 homers, 29 RBIs and a batting average of 0.394 (41 hits in 104 times at bat) with a slugging percentage of 0.952 OPS of 1.444 and won the Player of the Month award. Ohtani hit .300 for the first time since his debut last year, and won the home run king award. However, if he maintains the current pace and returns to June, he can expect even better performance. He can also expect historical performance like Aaron Judge or higher.