Forget baseball, Shohei Ohtani just had the greatest performance in sports history

Shohei Ohtani is 1-of-1; everybody knows that at this point. There's a reason he got $700 million from the Los Angeles Dodgers (with all but $20 million of it deferred). He's an MVP-caliber hitter, as we've seen in the years he's been unable to pitch, and he's a Cy Young-caliber pitcher when at his best.

We've seen some historically great performances from Ohtani both on the mound and at the plate, but rarely have we seen Ohtani dominate in both facets in the same game, and rarely have we seen Ohtani put up a monstrous two-way performance like this in a game with actual meaning. This is the unfortunate reality after Ohtani spent the first six years of his MLB career with the Los Angeles Angels.

Well, we can't say these things about Ohtani anymore. Ohtani, the starting pitcher in Game 4 of the NLCS against the Milwaukee Brewers with a chance to send the Dodgers to the World Series, not only dominated on the mound, but had a historically great performance at the plate.

As a pitcher, Ohtani pitched six scoreless innings, allowing just two hits and three walks while striking out 10 batters. As a hitter, Ohtani went 3-for-3 with a walk. All three of those hits were home runs, two of which were hit over 440 feet. A pitcher throwing six scoreless innings in the NLCS with 10 strikeouts is extremely hard to do. A hitter hitting three home runs in an NLCS game is unheard of. A player, somehow, doing both of these things in the same NLCS game is impossible. It is video game-like. It doesn't make sense. Yet, Ohtani did it, and it didn't even look like he broke a sweat doing it.

He had more home runs than hits allowed, and it's not as if he threw a no-hitter. Please, just let that sink in.

This, easily, was the greatest performance in MLB history, especially when considering the circumstances. I'd even go as far as to argue this is the greatest performance in sports history. Let's compare it to other great moments.

For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop during the MLB season.

Other notable individual sports performances

Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game

Scoring 50 points in an NBA game is really hard to do. Doubling that sounds impossible, yet Wilt Chamberlain did that while also grabbing 25 rebounds in 1962. There's a really good chance that this will never happen again.

Tiger Woods' 2000 U.S. Open

Tiger Woods won the 2000 U.S. Open by a remarkable 15 strokes. Not only was the margin of victory absurd, but while he was able to finish 12 under par, not a single one of his competitors finished under par. There's dominance, then there's 2000 Tiger.

Adrian Peterson 296 rushing yards

Adrian Peterson carried the ball 30 times and rushed for 296 yards and three touchdowns in a 2007 game against the San Diego Chargers. Oh yeah, he broke the single-game rushing record as a rookie. It's hard to imagine any running back getting close to this anytime soon.

Michael Jordan's flu game

For most individuals and even athletes, getting the flu means resting for at least a day or two. For Michael Jordan, it meant dropping 38 points in Game 5 of the NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz to give the Chicago Bulls a 3-2 series lead.

Mark Messier's guarantee

Despite trailing 3-2 in the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals, Mark Messier guaranteed that the New York Rangers would overcome the New Jersey Devils to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals. Trailing 2-0 in Game 6 entering the third period, Messier put the Rangers on his back, scoring a natural hat trick in the third period to help force a Game 7 - a game the Rangers would win. They'd win the Stanley Cup, too.

Don Larsen's World Series perfect game

There have been a total of 24 perfect games in MLB history, one of those have come in the postseason. Not only did Don Larsen completely blank the Brooklyn Dodgers in the playoffs, but he did so in the World Series. Unimaginable.

Shohei Ohtani just had the greatest individual performance in sports history

It's really hard to overlook some of these games, especially knowing the unlikelihood that anyone will score 100 points in an NBA game or win by 15 strokes in the U.S. Open when nobody could even get under par, but we truly can't ignore what Ohtani just did.

I don't even know how to properly appreciate this, because nobody else can even attempt to do this. Shohei Ohtani is the only two-way player in the game right now, and I'm not sure we'll even see one ever again. Seeing one do what he's doing is out of the question. There will never be another Shohei Ohtani.

He accomplished a hitting feat and a pitching feat that only a select few had ever done in postseason history. Heck, there have only been 480 three-home run games in MLB regular season history. That might sound like a lot, but when considering the fact that 30 teams play 162 games every year, it really isn't a high number. In the postseason, that number dips to 12. Ohtani is one of the 12, while accomplishing something on the mound only 26 pitchers have done in a postseason game.

I... I have no words.

I don't even know how to begin comparing what Ohtani did against these other performances because nobody else can do this. Don Larsen's perfect game was obviously absurdly impressive, especially since it came in the World Series, but while it's improbable, dare I say we'll see a World Series perfect game before we see a repeat of what Ohtani just did by someone not named Ohtani? I don't even know what else should come close to comparing to what Ohtani did.

It's time for MLB fans to truly appreciate Shohei Ohtani

I understand the disdain MLB fans might have for Ohtani. Propaganda constantly gets shoved down everyone's throats about him, he's on the team everybody hates, and his contract is one that nobody can get behind. Still, what he's going will probably never be done again.

Like, how is this even possible? It isn't! Ohtani isn't real life!

It feels like we didn't fully appreciate Ohtani's greatness because a lot of his massive two-way accomplishments came in games with little meaning in Anaheim. Since arriving in Los Angeles, everyone has seen how great a hitter he is, but he's barely pitched. He wasn't truly unleashed on the mound until October.

We've seen Ohtani hit some big postseason home runs before, and we saw Ohtani pitch pretty well after a shaky second inning in his postseason pitching debut, but we've never seen him, or anybody, put a true two-way masterpiece together. Now that we have, in a NLCS clincher no less, it's time to truly appreciate his greatness.

This game was the best I've ever seen, and Shohei Ohtani is the greatest professional athlete I've ever seen. Hopefully, after tonight, anyone who reads this has come to a similar conclusion.