Shohei Ohtani had a night to remember in his first pitching start of the 2021 season. While it ended in a multi-run fluke, there is no doubt that, especially in the beginning, the start provided all the electricity fans had on can hope with the two-way star on the hill and on the plate.
It was clear we were headed for a historic night when the Angels lineup came out, confirming what manager Joe Maddon had been hinting at all week: Ohtani hit second on his first pitching start of the year. He became the first player to start both as a pitcher and at No. 2 in the order since Jack Dunleavy in 1903. The only other player to do that since at least 1901? Watty Lee, in 1902.
1 – In this game, Ohtani threw 101 mph and hit a homer at 115.2 mph that went 451 feet. Each of those numbers, individually, would be remarkable to a player in a game. But for the same player to do that in the the same game? Unheard of. Indeed, it was only the 40th team game in the Statcast Era where both a 115+ mph hit ball and a 100+ mph pitch were thrown from each player on that team. According to research from MLB.com’s research and development manager Jason Bernard, Ohtani became the first player with a ball over 110 mph and a field of 100 mph in the same game that was followed by Statcast (since 2015). There were nine cases where we reduced the run-out speed to a minimum of 170 km / h: Noah Syndergaard (eight times) and Aroldis Chapman.
2 – Prior to Ohtani on Sunday, only one pitcher had thrown a pitch of 100+ mph and even hit a home run of 100+ mph in the same game: Syndergaard, on May 27, 2015, May 11, 2016 (two home runs of 100 mph), and August 16 2016.
3 – Ohtani threw nine pitches at over 100 mph, the second most by an Angels starter in a game in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008), trailing only Ervin Santana’s 10 on June 25, 2008 He has now thrown 16 pitches at 100+ mph in his career. Santana, in that start of ’08, is the only other Angels-pitcher to reach 160 km / h as a starter in that period.
4 – He reached the top at 101.1 mph, equalizing the fastest throw of his career. That is also the fastest pitch thrown by a starter this season. It’s an even more impressive pitch speed measurement when you consider that Ohtani’s 115.2 mph homer is the hardest hit long ball yet in 2021. Of course we’re only four days into the season, but we’ve already got a lot of aces pitch and seen. there have been many home runs.
5 – Since Ohtani produced both the 101.1 mph field and 115.2 mph homer in the same game and led all the contestants in each category, this was the 11th time that the same pitcher had the hardest throw and the hardest ball in the same game since Statcast started tracking in 2015, Bernard said. The last pitcher to do it was Syndergaard on May 29, 2019, with a 108.4 mph double and a 160.4 mph pitch.
6 – Ohtani’s homer was not only the fastest of the year – it’s also the hardest hit by a pitcher followed by Statcast, surpassing a 112.5 mph homerun by Madison Bumgarner in 2017. an Angels player followed by Statcast.
7 – The implications of Statcast are clear, but it’s worth noting that there’s history here dating back to before ’15. When he homered, Ohtani became the first American League-starting pitcher to homer against an AL-team since Roric Harrison on the last day of the 1972 season – and the last day of the regular season without a designated hitter on the junior circuit. He also became the first starting pitcher since at least 1901 to hit a homerun first or second in a game.