In the first inning of Monday night’s frustrating loss to the San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani reached first via a single, then stole second base during the next at-bat. It was his 15th stolen base of the season, vaulting him into rarified air.
With the steal, Ohtani became the first player in Major League history to have 40 home runs and 15 stolen bases in his team’s first 114 games. He is one of two players to achieve that feat in his team’s first 120 games, with Ken Griffey Jr. needing 117 games in 1998 to collect both totals.
The history came in a loss, meaning Ohtani was not able to celebrate the achievement the way he would like. But it is yet another feather in the cap of Ohtani’s historic 2023 season, which is shaping up to be an improvement on his unanimous MVP 2021 campaign, a season many called the greatest in MLB history.
There is a strong chance that when 2023 comes to a close, this will be the Ohtani season looked at as the greatest individual performance in the history of the sport.
Ohtani is currently on pace for 56 home runs and 21 stolen bases. The stolen base figure wouldn’t surpass the 26 he had in 2021, but the home runs would smash not only his personal career high of 46, but the Angels franchise record of 47. That was set by Troy Glaus in 2000.
Not to mention, he is doing all of this at the plate while posting a strong season on the mound. He holds a 3.32 ERA with 160 strikeouts in 124.2 innings as of Tuesday.
Phil Nevin: Angels have had chances to close games late
The Angels lost their seventh straight game on Monday night, and there has been a running theme throughout the collapse. That is falling apart in the final innings. Carlos Estévez, who hadn’t blown a save all season, has dropped two opportunities since Thursday.
The Giants scored six runs in the ninth inning when the Angels led by one heading into the final frame. Previously, manager Phil Nevin discussed the blown opportunities in the four-game sweep loss against the Seattle Mariners in their prior series.
But like I said, that’s not the reason why we lost. We had chances to score. We had opportunities to put the bat on the ball and we didn’t.”
