Shohei Ohtani reveals who had saved him as ‘ HERO!!’
Shohei Ohtani is a man who knows a hero when he sees one, as he usually plays the hero for the team he plays for. And without a doubt, he knows full well that on Wednesday, bat boy Javier Herrera came to the rescue.
During the Dodgers’ 4-0 victory over the White Sox in the third inning, Herrera alerted him to a foul ball that Enrique Hernández was heading straight for Ohtani in the bench. Ohtani, who was relieved, then thanked Herrera for the help.
The Los Angeles Times said that Herrera, 38, met with the media prior to the Dodgers’ opening game against the Giants on Friday night. Ohtani shared a picture of the event on Instagram, overlaying it with the all-caps declaration, “MY HERO!!”
Herrera’s quick reflexes have won him many praises; manager Dave Roberts joked, for instance, that the squad ought to give Herrera a salary and extend his contract. However, Herrera shouldn’t expect the sudden celebrity to go to his head.
He claimed to be “just doing my job” on Friday.
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The amazing and getting better Ohtani Shohei
With the Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani is having an incredible rookie season. He is coming off of a scorching June that might easily win him National League Player of the Month next week. This week, he drove in a run in ten straight games, setting a team record. That was cut short on Friday night in San Francisco, but Ohtani managed to add a walk and a single.
Even though Ohtani is limited to hitting this season and hasn’t pitched, Mike Petriello of MLB.com contends that he is still undervalued. One of the observations made in the piece is that Ohtani is, to use the technical phrase, “hitting the hell out of the ball” in June, with a hard-hit percentage of 67 percent through Friday, one of the finest months since the data has been tracked.
Because of his exceptional hitting abilities, Ohtani is becoming more and more difficult to pitch against. This season, he leads the National League in home runs (25), runs scored (65), batting average (.322), slugging percentage (.640), OPS (1.043), wRC+ (190), and fWAR (4.6), to mention a few statistics. Ask the pitchers who have had to do it—like The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya.
In regards to taking on Ohtani, current teammate Tyler Glasnow said to Ardaya, “When I’d seen him the holes were relatively similar.” However, they are not as much holes as the average individual. He still has access to them. He simply speaks with them less.
Ryan Yarbrough is on pace to pitch 104 bullpen innings this season, having pitched 51⅓ innings through 83 Dodgers games thus far. Yarbrough, who officially pitched 118⅔ innings of relief in 2018 with the Rays, but primarily as a bulk pitcher after an opener, was caught up by Tyler Kepner at The Athletic, along with Scott Proctor, who became the last “true” reliever to pitch 100 innings in a season in 2006 with the Yankees.
