It’s incredibly rare for a pitcher and hitter to face each other multiple times with the roles having been reversed at any point.
It’s not something you’re going to see every day, that’s for sure.
But Brett Phillips and Shohei Ohtani have done just that.
Of course, we know Ohtani is a two-way player who can do both.
We’ve even seen Phillips make some emergency pitching appearances.
But it happened twice in the same series between the Los Angeles Angels and Tampa Bay Rays.
The Rays actually tweeted a side-by-side comparison of Ohtani taking his hacks against Phillips on Tuesday night, and Phillips doing the same against Ohtani on Wednesday.
What a time to be alive. pic.twitter.com/nKFw7Ds8wH
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) May 11, 2022
Trading Places
These two players have faced each other in about every sense of the word.
You might even say that Phillips could be considered a two-way player.
But it’s amazing that both of these guys have pitched and taken their hacks against each other.
It’s something you don’t see every day and it’s something we probably won’t see again.
The fact that it happened twice in the same series is even more amazing.
Two guys that pitch and hit doing it to each other twice in the same series?
Now that’s a first for a lot of people.
If we were still in the days where pitchers took their hacks in the National League, this would not be such a rare sighting.
But in the universal DH era, things have changed quite a bit.
Who knows what’s next?
Perhaps they’ll face each other again the next time their two teams face off.
And maybe the roles will be reversed again, as they were at one point in this series.
NEXT: MLB Shares First List Of 2022 MVP Favorites