Los Angeles Angels star Shohei Ohtani followed in the footsteps of baseball legend Babe Ruth after becoming the second-ever player to reach 500 strikeouts as a pitcher and 100 home runs.
The 28-year-old Japan-born pitcher, nicknamed "Shotime", helped change the Angels' fortunes against the St Louis Cardinals after his team spent most of the night trailing.
The Angels were able to put together three runs in the ninth inning to run out 6-4 winners over the Cardinals, with Ohtani scoring the final run, following on from teammates Mike Trout and Jake Lamb, who hit solo home runs during the three-run rally.
Despite four runs on five hits over five innings getting past him, Ohtani managed to strike out 13 batters reaching a career total of 500, writing his name in MLB history books.
Ohtani has joined Ruth as just the second player to record 500 strikeouts as a pitcher and 100 homers as a hitter, and he is just the fifth player since 1900 with 500 career hits and 500 career strikeouts. Reaching Ruth's impressive homer total of 714, however, might prove to be too difficult of a feat to reach.
The historic milestone follows a record-breaking week, which saw the Japan baseball star record 11 hits and 21 strikeouts - something no MLB player in the modern era has managed in a week, according to Opta.
“I feel like they were sitting on certain pitches on certain counts,” Ohtani said. "They guessed right and got all of those extra-base hits.
"I just have to do a better job. I gave up a couple of homers and wanted to get through six or seven innings, minimum. More than the strikeouts, I’m more disappointed that I didn’t get that far in the game.”
Ohtani is having quite the MLB season. He has recorded 59 strikeouts in 39 innings and is the first pitcher to reach 13 strikeouts in a game this season, and he has the chance to match Ruth's career strikeout total of 501 in his next outing. “He was good,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said of Ohtani. “There are some good hitters over there [Cardinals]."
