Shohei Ohtani's supporting cast stays refusing to support him and it's sad

Major flashbacks were thrown to last season for the LA Angels, as Shohei Ohtani drove in eight runs yesterday. Not only because driving in eight runs is very Ohtani-esque in the 2021 season, but because the team still lost. It felt like last year all over again--Ohtani makes history AGAIN, but the Halos lose AGAIN.

Ohtani went three for four with two three-run jacks and two sacrifice flies that brought one run each last night in the Halos' loss to the Kansas City Royals. His second three-run homer tied the game in the bottom of the ninth to send it to extras. He's the first Japanese-born player to ever drive in eight runs in MLB.

His teammates, however, combined to go seven for 37 at the plate. His teammates combined to give up 12 runs in 11 innings. His teammates made history for the wrong reasons. No player in history has ever had eight-plus RBIs and still lost (since the RBI stat came about in 1920).

Shohei Ohtani's LA Angels' teammates let him down big-time in Tuesday's game.

This has been oh-so-typical of Shohei Ohtani's time with the LA Angels these past couple of years. Ohtani has hit .258/.359/.558 (.918 OPS) since 2021 and launched 61 home runs in the 223 games he's played. Still, however, the team has won just 110 games and lost 128.

Ohtani has driven in 145 runs in that time and scored 147. It still, for whatever reason, isn't enough to even have a .500 record. This is not to mention the 3.21 ERA he's put up in these last two seasons (34 starts so far), and the 134 ERA+. Nothing seems to be enough for the best player in baseball.

There's no excuse for a team to be losing when their three-hole hitter drives in eight RBIs. Even the other two best players on this team need to be better--Taylor Ward and Mike Trout combined to go one for eight.

Other than Jared Walsh (three for six with a double, a triple, a homer, two runs scored, and two RBIs) and Tyler Wade (one for two with three runs scored), this was a massive failure of a performance for Ohtani's supporting cast.