Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge got lost in the pitching duel between Angels starter Patrick Sandoval and New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole. Through their first two at-bats, Ohtani and Judge were hitless. Judge struck out twice, and Ohtani hit a fly-out and a pop-out.
Then in the sixth inning, Ohtani declared himself the most valuable player.
With two on and one out and the Angels trailing by two runs, the baseball titan sized up Cole's 2-and-0 four-seam fastball and hit it 107 miles per hour into the hedges behind the center-field wall. Ohtani trotted around the bases, and David Fletcher, who reached on a single, and Mike Trout, who reached base on a fielding error, waited to greet him after he touched home plate.
