Brett Phillips takes shot at Shohei Ohtani in most hilarious fashion
When Tampa Bay Rays' outfielder Brett Phillips came in to pitch against the LA Angels in an 8-0 blowout, he was set to face a gauntlet of hitters. The top of the order was soon to be up, with the ninth spot due up first. Andrew Velazquez got on with a single, and then came Brandon Marsh, Mike Trout, and two-way sensation Shohei Ohtani.
After Trout hit a two-run homer, ShoTime stepped up to the plate. Ohtani hit a sharp double off of the right field fence, taking advantage of a position player pitching. To Phillips, however, he was the one who came out victorious:
You know, that was a very highly anticipated matchup there, the American Shohei versus the Japanese Shohei...I’ve heard about him and how much power he has, but what I saw is off the wall. So I don’t know if it was me and my stuff — he just wasn’t used to it or didn’t recognize it — but all I see is that man hitting home runs, and he couldn’t even take me deep.
Of course, Brett Phillips is joking about LA Angels' Ace/DH Shohei Ohtani.
In fairness to Brett Phillips' comments anyways, though, Shohei Ohtani does seem to homer off of everyone else that the LA Angels play. He has 52 home runs in his last 187 games. That's unfair. It's understandable if Phillips feels a little confident after holding him to just a double.
"So I guess, does that make me the better Shohei?" asked Phillips. "We’ll let everyone decide.”
Well, Phillips can now add "comedian" to his LinkedIn profile which likely already now includes both "outfielder" AND "pitcher" in his bio. These are hilarious comments from an outfielder who definitely did look like he was having fun up on the bump on Tuesday.
He knew he had no chance against Trout, Ohtani, and Rendon. Of course he was going to give up a two-run shot to Trouty and a left-handed two-run home run to Rendon. Keeping Ohtani to a double, though, was certainly something he'll tell his grandkids someday.