The Tigers took the field for two games against the Angels and lost both to Shohei Ohtani. As if a throwing a one-hitter wasn't good enough in the first game, Ohtani stepped to the plate in the second game of Thursday's twin bill at Comerica Park and blistered his big-league leading 37th home run. And as if that wasn't enough, he dug in two innings later and blasted No. 38 to the moon. There were two teams on the field, and one force of nature.
"He was the best player on the field for both games," A.J. Hinch said after Ohtani-2, Tigers-0. "He was completely dominant in Game 1, nearly faced the minimum. Then he comes out and hits two monster homers. I have a lot of respect for him, and obviously know it’s in there because I watch highlights like anybody else, but to see it in person against you is rough."
Imagine being Matt Manning. The Tigers' 25 year-old-right hander came out firing in Game 2, his arm as hot as it's looked all season. He even punched Ohtani out on a 98 mph heater in the first. When they met again an inning later, Manning missed with a fastball and Ohtani hit it so hard the other way that it sailed over the Tigers bullpen and into the left-center field seats, like a right-handed pull job. And when they met once more in the fourth, Manning missed again and Ohtani did not, launching a missile to center that sizzled 435 feet, one of the longest, loudest bombs of the season at Comerica Park.
"Probably had the greatest day of baseball that anyone's ever seen today," said Manning. "It was incredible."
It was the greatest in the last 50 years, at least. Ohtani became just the fifth player in MLB history and the first since Red Sox star Sonny Siebert in 1971 to throw a complete game and hit two home runs on the same day. Rick Wise of the Phillies happened to do it that season as well, with a no-hitter for good measure. But neither Wise nor Siebert -- nor Pedro Ramos of the Indians in 1962 nor Milt Papas of the Orioles in 1961 -- were hitting, like Ohtani, on all the days they weren't pitching.
None of them, after their historic day at the ballpark, could say this: Ohtani now leads the majors this season in OPS (1.070) and batting average against (.185). In other words, he has been the game's most dangerous hitter and its most difficult pitcher to hit, all at once. Ohtani was so masterful on the mound Thursday, mixing sweepers and splitters, curves and cutters and 100 mph fastballs, that Hinch said "I think he’s making up pitches as he goes."
"We try to not take it for granted what we have in him," said Angels manager Phil Nevin. "I don’t know how to say it. You hate to say you expect greatness every day, but it’s what we get. Only the mentally strong are able to do that. You guys talk about him every day, it’s on TV every day and the fans come to watch him every day and to still be able to perform the way he does is mind-boggling."
The box scores will say the Tigers and Angels played two games Thursday at Comerica Park. They will say the Angels won the first game 6-0, the second 11-4. They will record all 62 players who were used by either club. History will remember that only one of them mattered.
"He kicked our ass on both sides," said Hinch.