Shohei Ohtani: Minnesota crowd reaction shows how respected slugger is

If Shohei Ohtani didn’t know he was big-time yet, he absolutely knows now.

During Sunday’s game, the best hitter in baseball was intentionally walked. Usually, the home crowd supports its team through its decisions on the field. In this case, Ohtani is so universally loved and respected that the crowd was very unhappy that they weren’t able to see him swing the bat.

The Twins were probably right to walk Ohtani, but no baseball fan at all wants to miss out on a chance to watch the player having the best season of all time hit.

Twins fans booing their own team for not pitching to Shohei Ohtani shows how respected the LA Angels DH is.

Let’s face it; most pitchers wouldn’t ever want to pitch to Shohei Ohtani. Especially when Ohtani was coming off of a two for four Saturday outing for the LA Angels. In fact, Ohtani was already two for three with a homer on Sunday coming into that 8th inning intentional walk.

The best part about it was that; despite the crowd being displeased that they couldn’t see him hit, they still got to see the Sho on the base paths.

https://twitter.com/shoheisaveus/status/1419402981649256450

Ohtani swiped his 13th bag of the season right after he was walked. That’s the most out of anyone on the team, with the next closest Angel being eight bases behind. It’s also Ohtani’s career-high mark.

There’s simply nothing this guy can’t do.

Shohei Ohtani taking his talents to the baserunning side of the game as soon as he couldn’t hit shows how easy it is for him to impact a game in any way.

It also proved that it was a mistake to walk Ohtani. He basically turned the decision into a quick double to put a second runner in scoring position. We may not have ended up scoring that inning, but I’d like to see somebody try doing that again.

Ohtani has been getting intentionally walked more frequently lately, but if he keeps finding ways to make teams pay, they’ll be forced to pitch to him again. That would be the best for baseball. Even fans who know it’s dangerous for their team to pitch to Ohtani want to witness his greatness and see him swing it.