LOS ANGELES — Imagine a player recording four extra-base hits in a World Series game for the first time in 100-plus years, and then walking five times in the same game to make it a perfect 9-for-9 reaching base. And then realize that performance was easily the weaker of that player’s past two home games.
Well, that’s true for Shohei Ohtani, who played the greatest game ever played his previous game at Dodger Stadium, the week before, hitting three home runs in three official at-bats, and logging the very same 1.000 on-base percentage while also striking out 10 and pitching six shutout innings.
In those two games — the clinching game of the NLCS and the first Dodgers home game in the World Series — Ohtani has a 1.000 on-base percentage, a 3.429 slugging percentage and a 4.429 OPS. Throw in a 0.00 ERA, and they represent the two greatest consecutive home games that have ever been played, or very likely will ever be played.
Some argue against Ohtani being the greatest talent since Babe Ruth, but they have no case. And even Ruth didn’t simultaneously pitch and hit anywhere near this frequently. Ruth is really the only one who’s close as an all-around player comp, and he did it in the segregated era. There is no other true comp, but if you separate what he does into categories, here’s who I came up with for comps:
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