The Los Angeles Angels and the New York Yankees have one thing in common, and it has little to do with their place in the standings, but rather their home to two prolific talents in Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge. Both have proven to be must-see television when in the spotlight.
Judge and Ohtani remain tied at the hip for MVP consideration, although the former is widely viewed as the favorite for the award. But with a runner on in the fifth inning and the score notched at two apiece, Ohtani launched a two-run shot that broke the tie and ultimately proved to be the deciding factor.
The Angels hung on to a 4-3 win, and manager Phil Nevin underscored the impact Judge and Ohtani had on the game, via Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com:
“What our guy does, until somebody can do that offensively and what he does on the mound, as far as value in this game and this league, I think it’s Shohei,” Nevin said. “But I really love the guy across the field. I know what kind of special person he is.”
Entering play on Tuesday, Judge has 50 home runs, 1 .057 OPS, and an fWAR of 8.1. Ohtani, meanwhile, sits at a 7.2 fWAR with 29 home runs and an .882 OPS. However, that doesn’t account for his pitching, where he could arguably be a top-10 Cy Young candidate.
With around a month of baseball left to play, both players will have to battle it out through September.
“Judgy is on a different planet, and so is Shohei,” Ford said. “If they could give two awards, it would be those two. It was pretty fun to see them match up. And for them to both homer in the same game was pretty cool.”
Judge is in the middle of one of the best offensive seasons for a player heading into free agency that we’ve seen in quite some time, and it’s unfortunate it’s taking that to possibly hold Ohtani off from a repeat MVP season.
Shohei Ohtani praised for efforts against Blue Jays
In the first seven games of the Angels’ recent 10-game road trip, Ohtani batted .200 with an on-base plus slugging of .604 and the club went 1-6 over that stretch, but he flipped a switch and the team followed.
Ohtani and Mike Trout combined to give the Angels 22 runs over their next three games and Ohtani posted a 1.318 OPS while tossing 7 scoreless innings in the middle game against the Blue Jays.
Trout tipped his cap to Ohtani for his play both on the mound and at the plate.
