Shohei Ohtani almost certainly isn’t winning his second straight AL MVP award. He’ll have one last chance to make his case, anyway, when the Angels visit the A’s on the regular season’s final day.
Los Angeles’ two-way star has been sensational on the mound this season, ranking sixth in ERA (2.35), third in FIP (2.43), and first in SIERA (2.73) among all MLB qualified starters. He’s also striking out 33.1 percent of the batters he faces — the second-highest mark in baseball and even higher than his electric 29.3% strikeout rate in his MVP campaign.
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He’s been especially sharp over his last six starts, even with the Angels’ playoffs chances all but evaporated for weeks. Since Aug. 27, Ohtani has allowed just four earned runs across 40 innings (0.90 ERA) and has struck out 30.7 percent of all batters — which includes an epic 10-strikeout performance across eight scoreless innings in Thursday’s win over the Athletics.
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Oakland has plated a whopping two runs in 19 ²/₃ combined innings against Ohtani, recording more strikeouts (22) in those three games than hits (13) and walks (5) combined. I’m not expecting a much better showing in Wednesday’s season finale, especially with the A’s bats having scored two or fewer runs in four of five games entering this series.
The play: A’s team total Under.
