"Really impressed with the way he's controlling the strike zone" - Dave Roberts on Shohei Ohtani's recent show of hitting prowess
Putting all controversies behind him, Shohei Ohtani is hitting at his best again. Such has been his hitting prowess of late that for him to barrel over 100 mph and make new exit velocity records is now normal.
Recently, in the Dodgers' 4-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday, the Dodgers two-way star barreled Yusei Kikuchi's 2-2 four-seam fastball for 119.2 mph off the bat. This was Ohtani's hardest-hit ball in his career, and the exit velocity recorded was the highest so far this season. The last hardest-hit ball in majors came in 2015.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was also impressed with Ohtani's hard-hitting of late.
“It's incredibly amazing,” said Roberts (via ESPN). “The ball comes off hot, but I think for me, I'm just really impressed with the way he's controlling the strike zone. I think you look at it as: you earn pitches. You earn pitches in the strike zone. In that at-bat, he took some balls down below, got a pitch in his nitro zone and was able to hit it hard.”
Ohtani now has three hits in his career with an exit velocity of 119 mph or higher. He trails Aaron Judge (six) and Giancarlo Stanton (32), who have led since the Statcast Era.
Shohei Ohtani silences boos at Roger Centre with first-at-bat home run
When Shohei Ohtani arrived at the plate in Friday's game against the Blue Jays, he received loud boos. The Toronto faithful had a dislike since they believed Ohtani chose the Dodgers over the Blue Jays.
However, Ohtani silenced the crowd with a home run in the right field. This was his seventh home run of the season.
After the game, Shohei Ohtani mentioned that he was not surprised by the negative reception upon his arrival, but he understood.
"Aside from how the fans may or may not think, I'm just very grateful for the teams that approached me and wanted to sign me," Ohtani said. "As I said in my press conference before, ultimately I could only choose one team."
Interestingly, before the Dodgers signed him, there were rumors of him getting on board a flight to Toronto but those were squashed the next day when Ohtani announced he was signing with the Dodgers.