He’s not satisfied. Shohei Ohtani, 29, of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, has taken a bold step to change his game, and it’s paying off.
On June 16, Japanese media outlet NumberWeb reported, “Ohtani rebounded in June with ‘a few centimeters’ of change,” and explained the reason for his recent success.
Ohtani started and batted second in the 2023 Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. On the mound, he pitched six innings, allowing two runs on six hits with one walk and three strikeouts, while at the plate, he went 1-for-2 with a home run (his 22nd of the season), two RBI, one run scored, and two walks.
His performance at the plate was particularly impressive. After drawing walks in the first and sixth innings, Ohtani launched a two-run home run over the left-center field fence in the top of the eighth. With a 3-2, one-run lead, it proved to be invaluable for the Angels. It was a bonus that Ohtani kept his starting job. With his 150th major league home run, he moved into a tie for the American League lead with Aaron Judge (New York Yankees, 19).
Including this game, Ohtani has been on a tear in June. In 14 games, he is batting .426 (23-for-54) with seven home runs and 16 RBIs. His OPS is a whopping 1.459, and he’s been terrorizing pitchers. He’s been especially hot lately, with six home runs in his last seven games. His batting average, which once dipped into the low .260s, is up to .301 through 16 games. In fact, Ohtani also hit eight home runs in May, but he was batting just .243. So how did Ohtani pull off his June breakout?
According to the media, during his May slump, Ohtani took batting practice outdoors, which he doesn’t normally do, and also watched his own batting video on a tablet before and during games to analyze problems. On May 31, he adjusted the grip of his bat by a few centimeters, and it paid off. He hit a home run that day, then a multi-homer game the next day, and the rest is history.토토사이트
Ohtani has been unusually strong in June since making his major league debut. Since 2018, he has a career .332 batting average and 1.159 OPS in June, the only time in his career that he has posted a triple-digit batting average and OPS over 1.000 in the month. “April and May are the months where you work on the bad parts of your hitting, so I think I got better as the season went on,” Ohtani said, according to the outlet.
Ohtani has already reached the top of his game, winning the American League MVP in 2021. But he’s not content to rest on his laurels, and is continuing to evolve and become an even more terrifying hitter.