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What did Shohei Ohtani do this week? Pull away in the MVP race with huge homers

Mo Castillo
·3-min read

A unicorn is usually defined as "a mythical animal generally depicted with the body and head of a horse with long flowing mane and tail and a single often spiraled horn in the middle of the forehead."

Or, they could've just gone with "A unicorn is Shohei Ohtani."

In this space, we're going to discuss (and try to analyze) what mind-boggling efforts and accomplishments the Los Angeles Angels' two-way star puts together on a week-to-week basis — because it's the right thing to do.

Yes, we must highlight the greatness that is unfolding before our eyes. The world doesn't deserve Shohei Ohtani, but he somehow exists — and we should be talking about him as much as possible.

What did Shohei Ohtani do on Monday? How about a little of everything?

I'm convinced Shohei Ohtani is running on some yet-to-be-discovered element at this point, so Monday's results shouldn't be too surprising.

Yet, here we are.

Ohtani once again joined the annals of history on Monday, pitching against the Rockies in Los Angeles while hitting out of the two-spot:

Ohtani secured the victory, tossing seven innings of one-run ball (and lowering his ERA to 3.04 in the process). He also made an impact with his bat, adding an RBI, a run, and a stolen base to his already gaudy season numbers. It's a little ridiculous at this point, TBH.

What did Shohei Ohtani do on Tuesday? Hit a monstrous 463-foot home run

Austin Gomber was making mincemeat of the Angels on Tuesday, shutting them out through four innings, until Ohtani came to the plate with a man on second and hit a towering shot for his 36th home run of the year.

We might have to start thinking about Ohtani getting to 50 home runs this season (my head might explode, but it'll be worth it).

What did Shohei Ohtani do on Wednesday? Hit a 3-run blast for his 37th homer of 2021

It's almost like he heard me say, "We might have to start thinking about Ohtani getting to 50 home runs this season," in the previous blurb. His second round-tripper in consecutive days, the unicorn even added a masterfully nonchalant bat flip to his home-run trot:

So, I'd now like to revise my previous statement, this time saying, "We might have to start thinking about Ohtani getting to 50 home runs and 105+ RBIs and a 3.00 ERA this season."

What did Shohei Ohtani do on Thursday? Add another piece of history to his resume

Ohtani was relatively quiet with his bat on Thursday, but he stole his 15th base of the season. With that swipe, Ohtani achieved something no one had done in over 100 years:

UPDATED SHOHEI OHTANI AL MVP ODDS: -700 via BetMGM

Ohtani's MVP odds have now ballooned to the point where you'd have to shell out $700 just to win one unit. Those odds seem to be tied to his homer hitting and his performance on the mound. If he beefs up his HR lead, so too do his odds rise; if he delivers a quality start or shutout pitching performance, count on his odds rising again — and he did both of those things this week.

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