Through his first six career games in 2018, 23-year-old MLB rookie Shohei Ohtani is 2-0 with a 2.08 ERA across 13 innings while hitting .389 with three homers and 7 RBI in 18 at-bats.
Through the first five games of his career in 1914 (the only ones he played that year), Babe Ruth was 2-1 with a 4.09 ERA across 22 innings while hitting .200 with no homers or RBI in 10 at-bats.
Looking at those numbers, it’s obvious: Ohtani will be better than Ruth and it’s not close.
Not quite, but Ohtani’s production on the mound and in the batter’s box has been incredibly impressive thus far and, though it’s probably unsustainable, he has a chance to have one of the most compelling statistical seasons MLB has seen in years.
Consider, Ohtani is just the third player in MLB history to get two wins and hit three homers in his team’s first 10 games and is also only the third player to hit a home run in three consecutive games and also record a double-digit strikeout game in the same season.
There’s nearly a season left of baseball to be played, but expect the “Sultan of Small Sample Sizes” to keep putting up stats at a Ruth-ian pace until further notice.
“He never looks like he’s out of place,” said Angels catcher Martin Maldonado. “He looks like a hitter when he’s batting and looks like a pitcher when he’s pitching. It’s impressive. We haven’t seen that before.’’
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