Shohei Ohtani continues to live up to hype with another home run

The season is only a week old, but thus far Shohei Ohtani has been pretty much as advertised.

It’s not uncommon for players to struggle in spring training, but the microscope on Shohei Ohtani as he makes an attempt to be a legit two-way player made his poor spring a dual concern. But he collected a hit in his first major league at-bat last Thursday, then followed up with a good first outing as a starting pitcher on Easter Sunday and a home run on Tuesday night as part of a 3-for-4 day at the plate in his first home game for the Angels.

Ohtani got another turn in the lineup as the Angels’ DH on Wednesday afternoon, against  Cleveland Indians’ starter and reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, with a man on and two out, Ohtani powered up again to tie the game for the Angels.

Ohtani’s second home run in as many days had an exit velocity of 100 MPH, traveled an even 400 feet, had a peak crest of 78 feet and took 5.1 seconds to leave one of the deepest parts of Angels Stadium.

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Ohtani looks sure to be a player whose metrics Statcast will love to track wherever he is on the diamond. On two simple groundouts during Wednesday’s contest, he showed difference-making “sprint speed” down the first base line.

Sprint speed can he chalked up partially to simply hustling down the line, which is surely ingrained in Ohtani from playing in his native country, and being a left-handed hitter helps too. But if he can run as fast as Statcast has tracked him on a consistent basis, he will be a factor on the bases despite a build (listed a 6-foot-4 and 203 pounds) that might suggest otherwise.

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Through his first week playing meaningful baseball stateside, Ohtani has been all of the two-way player he was advertised to be.