Los Angeles Angels fans react as Shohei Ohtani inches away from homering for the cycle while pitching his way to 4-0: "Greatest flyout of all time"
Los Angeles Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani was nearly knocked out of Thursday's game against the Oakland Athletics in the fourth inning.
Four innings later, he nearly made history.
"BASEBALL HISTORY COMING FOR SHOHEI!"
"...but it's caught at the wall" https://t.co/2m9E0lUaIm
Ohtani took the mound against the lowly Athletics for his sixth start of the year on a sunny afternoon in Anaheim. However, things were looking stormy for him after three innings of shutout ball.
After the Angels took a 5-0 lead in the bottom of the third, Oakland surged in the top of the fourth with five runs of its own. Ohtani's start hung by a thread with two Athletics on base, but the MLB phenomenon survived the inning and made Oakland pay for its insolence.
The 2021 American League MVP broke out his bat and logged a single, a double, and a triple. He strode to the plate in the bottom of the eighth inning, needing his seventh home run of the year to become the first pitcher to hit for the cycle in an MLB game.
Ohtani turned on reliever Richard Lovelady's offering and tattooed the ball high and deep towards right center field. Angels fans in the stadium thought it was gone, as did the team's television announcer and likely most of Ohtani's teammates.
However, the ball died just short of the wall, and Oakland centerfielder Esteury Ruiz hauled it into his glove. The quest for baseball history was just an achingly few feet shy of occurring.
Shohei Ohtani would've remained in the game as a hitter whether or not he had been pulled early from his start. However, he settled down on the mound after the fourth inning and pitched six innings to go to 4-0 as the Los Angeles Angels held on for an 8-7 victory.
At the plate, Ohtani went 3-for-5 with one RBI and two runs scored to boost his batting average to .278.
Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels hanging in AL West race, just one game off the lead
With their third win in a row, Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Angels pulled to within a game of the American League-leading Texas Rangers as the Rangers prepared to take the field against the New York Yankees on Thursday night.
The Angels upped their record to 14-12 by taking three-of-four against the Athletics in the now-completed series. Oakland dropped to an MLB-worst 5-21 with the defeat.