Shohei Ohtani leaves start with injury, hits another home run anyway

Los Angeles Angels do-it-all superstar and AL MVP frontrunner Shohei Ohtani appeared to suffer sort of injury toward the tail end of his start against the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday night. Ohtani was brilliant through the first six innings, striking out nine and holding Chicago scoreless (while hitting his MLB-leading 27th homer, because of course). But with two on and one out in the top of the seventh — and with Ohtani at 101 pitches — the 28-year-old appeared to signal for the trainer Mike Frostad and manager Phil Nevin. After a lengthy meeting on the mound, Ohtani was eventually pulled from the game.

Chaos reigned for several minutes, as Ohtani remained in the dugout — and seemingly the lineup as the DH — while no one had any idea what if anything might be wrong with him.

Thankfully, it didn’t take long for the team to offer an update: Ohtani had been removed from the game due to a cracked fingernail that made gripping and throwing the ball difficult. Not only would the 28-year-old remain in the lineup for the rest of the game, he went deep again in the very next half-inning:

Forget his place in baseball history; we’re at the point now where we need to start asking whether Ohtani is among the best athletes we’ve ever seen. That dinger brought home to 3-for-3 on the night, after he came into play on Wednesday slashing a ridiculous .297/.379/.630. Oh, and on the mound, he entered this latest start with a 3.13 ERA with a league-best 11.8 K/9. He’s one of the very best hitters and pitchers on planet Earth, and we’ve never seen anything like him before — even with only nine good fingernails.