During his three-year tour de force on baseball, two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani is running out of firsts. Whether on the mound or in the batter’s box—or both—he pulls off historic feats on nearly a nightly basis. So anytime he checks another milestone off of his lengthy list of career accomplishments, it’s worth noting.
And he pulled off just that with a sensational performance on the mound Thursday against the Tigers.
Ohtani fired his first career shutout as the Angels cruised to a 6–0 victory in the first leg of a doubleheader. The dominant showing was also the first-ever complete game thrown by Ohtani since he arrived in MLB in 2018.
A complete game shutout for Shohei Ohtani‼️
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) July 27, 2023
(via @BallySportWest) pic.twitter.com/cJdSd0HMol
Ohtani was quiet at the plate, going 0-for-5 with two strikeouts, but it didn’t matter in the least. He allowed just one hit with three walks and eight strikeouts, tying a season-high with 111 pitches.
It was an encouraging outing for Ohtani after he’d struggled in his recent pitching starts. In his three previous outings in July, the runaway favorite for American League MVP had given up 15 runs in 16 1/3 innings, with six homers allowed. He had completed seven innings just once in his last 10 starts before Thursday.
The win was the Angels’ seventh in their last eight games and comes one day after the team landed pitchers Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo López in a trade with the White Sox. Giolito will make his debut with his new team against the Blue Jays on Friday.
