Since Shohei Ohtani made his major league debut in 2018, the comparisons to Babe Ruth have been unrelenting.
On Tuesday night, the Los Angeles Angels two-way pitcher/designated hitter passed The Babe—at least in the eyes of Major League Baseball.
Ohtani’s strikeout of Houston’s Jeremy Pena in the second inning at Anaheim, California, was the Japanese star’s 502nd career whiff on the mound. With Ruth’s career strikeout total at 501—according to MLB’s official statistics—Ohtani now is the all-time leader in strikeouts by a player with at least 100 career home runs.
Other outlets place Ruth’s pitching strikeout total at 488, but when Ohtani got his 500th career strikeout in his previous outing on May 3, MLB considered Ohtani to be the second member of the 500-K/100-HR club….