How well Shohei Ohtani will hold up in his return to a full-time two-way role this year remains somewhat in question, amid hisrecent and perplexing slump at the plate.
Whether or not he can be a viable Cy Young candidate as a pitcher, however, is no longer in doubt.
Ohtani already had the best early-season stats of any big-league starter before Wednesday night. Then, he went out andhad his best performance of the young campaign, throwing seven scoreless innings with eight strikeouts in the Dodgers’ win over the Giants.
With that, the four-time MVP is now doing somethingChavez Ravinehasn’t seen since the days of Fernandomania in 1981.
His 0.82 ERA is the best by a Dodgers pitcher to this point of a year since Fernando Valenzuela’s historic ‘81 season (when Valenzuela had an incomprehensible 0.29 ERA in seven consecutive season-opening complete games).
Ohtani is also just the seventh pitcher in MLB history (since earned runs became an official stat in 1912) to have a sub-0.85 ERA and at least 50 strikeouts in his first seven starts, according to MLB researcher Sarah Langs.
Sub-0.85 ERA & 50+ strikeouts in first seven outings of season, since ER official in AL+NL (1913):2026 Shohei Ohtani2021 Jacob deGrom2009 Johan Santana2009 Zack Greinke1981 Fernando Valenzuela1914 Dutch Leonardhttps://t.co/E1WmpJwqHn
All of it has cemented Ohtani’s place as a legitimate Cy Young frontrunner –– giving him an early leg up on even the reigning National League award winner, Paul Skenes (who is 6-2 with a 1.98 ERA, albeit with six more strikeouts and innings pitched than Ohtani).
It is validating a goal that, given theworkload challenges Ohtani was facingin his return to two-way duties this year, felt more fantastical when the season began.
“I’ve said for a long time, he’s a different person when he’s pitching,” manager Dave Roberts said Wednesday night. “He wants to win the Cy Young … So when he’s pitching, I just sort of let him go. He’s in a zone.”
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