Continuing his torrid close to the season in the batter’s box, Shohei Ohtani had two more hits Saturday night in Denver to raise his batting average and move closer to a historic Triple Crown batting in the National League.
However, Ohtani will need a spectacular final game this Sunday to win the Triple Crown, which consists of the lead in batting average, home runs, and RBIs. The Japanese has the home run and RBI championships in the bag, but he is second in the fight for the Old Circuit batting title.
Ohtani is hitting .310, while Luis Arráez sat at .314
During the Dodgers’ 13-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies, Ohtani had two hits in five official at-bats to hit .310. The leader of the National League is Venezuelan Luis Arráez, of the San Diego Padres, who has .314 and who did not see action this Saturday in his team’s 5-0 victory in Arizona.
Therefore, Ohtani will depart this Sunday in the final game of the regular season trailing by four points. If Arráez doesn’t play, his .314 average will no longer budge, so Ohtani would be forced to hit some hits to aspire to reach him and achieve a feat which hasn’t been seen in the National League since 1937, when Joe Medwick did it for the Cardinals.
In a year in which he made history as the first player with 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases and in which he finally punched his ticket to the Major League playoffs, Ohtani can still continue to rewrite baseball’s record books, even the most unimaginable.
The Dodgers, who hours before their game on Saturday secured the first seed in the playoffs – and the best winning record in the Major Leagues – due to the fall of the Philadelphia Phillies, overcame Colorado led by three hits from Gavin Lux, Chris Taylor and Enrique Hernández for nine of the 18 hits they had together.
Dominican Teoscar Hernández hit a 3-run home run, while Japanese Yoshinobu Yamamoto earned his seventh win by pitching 5 innings with 4 hits and 2 earned runs. His rookie season ends with 7-2 and 3.00 earned runs.
All of Ohtani’s leads before the final match of 2024
Ohtani will start the Dodgers’ final game with impressive numbers: he is 1st. of the National League in home runs (54) and runs produced (130). Dominican Marcell Ozuna (Atlanta) has 39 home runs and Willy Adames (Milwaukee) has 112 RBIs, both with no chance of reaching the Dodgers’ designated hitter.
Besides, Ohtani will go into the last game as 1st. in runs scored (134), 1st. in extra-base hits (99), 1st. in total bases (410), 1st. in slugging (.649)1st. in OBP or on-base percentage (.391), 1st. in OPS or slugging plus on-base percentage (1,040), 1st. in plate appearances (727), 2nd. in hits (196), 2nd. in stolen bases (58) and 2nd. in walks received (81).
Keep reading:
– Another Ohtani record: he leaves behind the record for stolen bases for a Japanese in MLB
– Shohei Ohtani finally bathed in champagne after the Dodgers win the West again
– The ball from Shohei Ohtani’s historic 50th home run will be auctioned: bidding starts at $500,000 dollars