Shohei Ohtani Adds to Ridiculous Resume With Career High in Strikeouts

Ohtani joined some elite company with his latest feat on the mound.

Angels two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani was once again sharp on the mound during his outing against the Cardinals on Wednesday.

While he only pitched five innings during the inter-league clash, that didn’t stop him from racking up a multitude of punchouts. 

In just five innings of work, Ohtani struck out 13 of St. Louis’s batters. Despite surrendering four runs, including two home runs, Ohtani still walked away having recorded a strikeout on all but two of the 15 outs he recorded. His 13 strikeouts tied his career high. 

Of the Cardinals’ nine starting position players, all but third baseman Nolan Arenado fell victim to at least one strikeout against Ohtani. 

The Angels were trailing St. Louis 4–3 when Ohtani exited the game, but they rallied in the top of the ninth inning to steal a 6–4 win. 

To further put Ohtani’s historic performance into perspective, he became just the fourth pitcher since 1901 to record 13-plus strikeouts in five innings or less on the mound, according to MLB’s Sarah Langs. He joins Zack Greinke (’12), Alex Cobb (’10), and Jacob deGrom (’22) in that regard. 

While he didn’t have his cleanest outing on Wednesday, Ohtani’s strikeout stuff was some of the best we’ve seen from the 28-year-old throughout his MLB career. He now owns a season ERA of 2.54 and has racked up 59 K’s in 39 innings of work.