![\"Shohei](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Shohei-Ohtani-2-2.jpg\")
Shohei Ohtani reacts to a strike call in the first inning of the Dodgers\u2019 Game 4 loss to the Blue Jays. Getty Images<\/p>\nImagine a player recording four extra-base hits in a World Series game for the first time in 100-plus years, and then walking five times in the same game to make it a perfect 9-for-9 reaching base. <\/p>\n
And then realize that performance was easily the weaker of that player\u2019s past two home games.<\/p>\n
Well, that\u2019s true for Shohei Ohtani, who played the greatest game ever played his previous game at Dodger Stadium, the week before, hitting three home runs in three official at-bats, and logging the very same 1.000 on-base percentage while also striking out 10 and pitching six shutout innings.<\/p>\n
In those two games \u2014 the clinching game of the NLCS and the first Dodgers home game in the World Series \u2014 Ohtani had a 1.000 on-base percentage, a 3.429 slugging percentage and a 4.429 OPS. <\/p>\n
Throw in a 0.00 ERA, and they represent the two greatest consecutive home games that have ever been played, or very likely will ever be played.<\/p>\n
Some argue against Ohtani being the greatest talent since Babe Ruth, but they have no case. And even Ruth didn\u2019t simultaneously pitch and hit anywhere near this frequently. <\/p>\n
Ruth is really the only one who\u2019s close as an all-around player comp, and he did it in the segregated era. There is no other true comp, but if you separate what he does into categories, here\u2019s who I came up with for comps:<\/p>\n
1. Hitting comp: Juan Soto. Aaron Judge first comes to mind for the otherworldly power. But fairly, Judge\u2019s 172 OPS-plus puts him somewhat ahead. As a career hitter, Juan Soto is tied with Ohtani with a 160 OPS-plus and ahead of Stan Musial (159), Hank Aaron (155), Willie Mays (155) and Joe DiMaggio (155).<\/p>\n
Shohei Ohtani reacts to a strike call in the first inning of the Dodgers\u2019 Game 4 loss to the Blue Jays. Getty Images<\/p>\n
2. Pitching comp: Roger Clemens. Ohtani\u2019s career 143 ERA-plus is also Hall of Fame worthy and puts him in a dead heat with Clemens, who pitched a lot more innings but also cheated like crazy. Ohtani understandably pitches a lot less than he hits, but the 143 mark places him ahead of Max Fried (141), Chris Sale (141), Christy Mathewson (136) and Randy Johnson (135).<\/p>\n
3. Base stealing comp: Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. He and Acu\u00f1a combine power and speed. One\u2019s the only 50-50 guy (Ohtani), the other the only 40-70 guy (Acu\u00f1a).<\/p>\n
4. Marketing comp: The other 779 MLB players combined. Yep, the rest of the league might be the best comp. We only have estimates for Ohtani\u2019s off-field value, but word is Ohtani generates well over $100 million \u2014 perhaps close to $200M (by some estimates)\u2014 in marketing and sponsorship money for the Dodgers while also making close to $100M for himself. If every other player\u2019s off-field value is combined, it might come close to Ohtani. Maybe.<\/p>\n
5. Salary comp: Mark Leiter Jr. Ohtani is paid $2M this year. Leiter, the Yankees reliever left off their division series roster, is actually slightly higher at $2.05M. Among players on the World Series teams, Ernie Clement ($1.97M), Alex Vesia ($2.3M) Brusdar Graterol ($2.8M) and Nick Sandlin ($1.63M) are all in the ballpark. Of course, Ohtani has the remaining $68M each year deferred.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Imagine a player recording four extra-base hits in a World Series game for the first time in 100-plus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,57,4,2305,468,185,430,1039],"class_list":{"0":"post-405508","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-mlb-playoffs","12":"tag-shohei-ohtani","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-sports-columnists","15":"tag-world-series"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115457977634238783","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}