After he lifted his Los Angeles Angels to the victory on Thursday night, Shohei Ohtani is the talk of MLB.
He pitched seven innings with just one run allowed, and he hit an important home run, too, as if his pitching performance wasn’t enough.
Of course, we are used to seeing incredible things from him ever since he made his MLB debut in 2018.
We are probably used to Ohtani being the only man in Major League Baseball capable of hitting a home run and pitching in the same game.
But he has some company, as it turns out.
“Players to homer in a game they also pitched in this season: Luis González; Shohei Ohtani,” MLB statician Sarah Langs tweeted.
Players to homer in a game they also pitched in this season:
Luis González
Shohei Ohtani— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) June 10, 2022
The criteria is homering in a game in which they pitched: it doesn’t say the player has to pitch adequately!
At Least He Has Something In Common With Ohtani
All kidding aside, San Francisco Giants outfielder Luis Gonzalez has performed admirably in 2022, with a .314/.372/.430 line, two home runs, four stolen bases, and 20 RBI.
But he also appears to be the go-to position player when the Giants are in a blowout and don’t want to overtax their bullpen.
Gonzalez has already pitched in three games, covering 4.1 innings.
Unlike Ohtani, he is not particularly good at it: his 6.23 ERA is too high to be decent.
He also throws his fastball in the low-80s.
At least he has limited his walks to one in those 4.1 frames, but hasn’t been able to strike anyone out and it’s hard to envision him doing it in the future.
He is not nearly as impressive as Ohtani and is not really a two-way threat, but at least Gonzalez can say he has something in common with the Japanese star.
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