Christian Yelich drops Babe Ruth truth bomb on Shohei Ohtani’s NLCS Game 4 greatness appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
After nearly a decade in MLB, it’s easy to take the Los Angeles Dodgers’ two-way star Shohei Ohtani for granted.
Sure, the 31-year-old has four MVPs, a Rookie of the Year award, five All-Star berths, four Silver Sluggers, and a dozen or so other major accomplishments to hang his hat on, but after watching the Los Angeles-based baseballer hit homers and throw Ks in the same game split between the Angels and Dodgers over 1,086 contests and counting, it’s easy to forget just how unique his game is in MLB history.
Discussing his time playing against Ohtani during the NLCS last season on The Old Man and the Three, Milwaukee Brewers star Christian Yelich broke down just how impressive the Dodgers star is in the context of baseball history, noting that even Babe Ruth couldn’t match his dominance.
“He’s a freak. Yeah, it’s just, if he was just one thing, he would be really good at it, but to be like arguably the best at both things is crazy, you know? Just to his skill set is, you know, nobody’s ever had that before, you know? I mean, like, not even Babe Ruth had that to be able to throw 100 off the mound and be one of the best pitchers in baseball and then obviously one of the offensive players too, and he’s just such a physical freak too. He’s huge,” Yelich said.
“You know, he probably played one of the best games that’s ever been played in the history of baseball against us. You know, usually when you like get eliminated from the playoffs like, you know, we were obviously bummed, but we lost Game 4 of the NLCS to him. He had three homers and punched out ten guys on the mound in that game. (He) basically beat us by himself. And you’re just like, ‘Yeah, well we should have probably won like one of the other three years before that,’ you know, cuz you’re just like, ‘Yeah, man, like what are you gonna do?’ To have a front-row seat to like, that’s gonna be a historical baseball game, you know, like you might not ever see that happen ever again, especially in the postseason.”
In the history of major league baseball, how many players have hit three home runs and struck out ten batters in a single playoff game? Yeah, that number would be zero, at least until Ohtani accomplished the feat on October 17th. Ohtani’s bat has undoubtedly been one of the best in the business, and his current improved focus on pitching in the pursuit of becoming the first Japanese-born Cy Young winner has resulted in a 0.97 ERA over 37 innings across his six starts. While another player may eventually attempt the two-way path like Ruth before him, there will never be another player quite like Shohei Ohtani.
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