Major League Baseball Angels' Shohei Ohtani was named the American League's Player of the Week and MVP of the Week. This was Otani's third award of the season and seventh overall, breaking his own record for the most Japan players.
Major League Baseball recognizes the player who has performed the most in a week as the "MVP of the Week" in both leagues, and Ohtani was named the American League MVP of the week from July 1 to 1.
Ohtani pitched the first game of a doubleheader against the Tigers on the 7th and earned his first shutout victory in the big leagues, and in the second game that began 24 minutes later, he appeared as the designated hitter and hit a home run in two consecutive at-bats.
He also hit a home run in the first at-bat of the game the next day, becoming the first player to hit a home run in three consecutive at-bats.
As a batter, he went 30-for-27 with a .1 batting average, three home runs and four RBIs in six games.
As a pitcher, he pitched in one game, allowing just one hit in nine innings with no runs and eight strikeouts.
This is the third time Ohtani has won the MVP of the Week award this season and the seventh overall, breaking his own record for the most Japan players.
Ohtani has batted 45-for-2 with 2 home runs, 1 RBI, and 3 stolen bases so far this season, and is 6 behind second place in the battle for the home run king.
As a pitcher, he is 20-6 with a 3.3 ERA and 4 strikeouts, third in the league, and is already fighting for the individual title in pitching, and with two months left in the season, he is already on his way to achieving the first double-digit wins and double-digit home runs in history for two consecutive years.
What is MVP of the Week? 10 Japan players won
Major League Baseball MVPs of the Week are selected by pitchers and fielders, one each in the American League and the National League.
Started in 1, the first winners were Reggie Jackson of the American League with 1970 home runs, and Hank Aaron, who hit 563 home runs in the National League, both of whom were inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
So far, 755 Japan players have received the award, including Otani.
The first Japan player to receive the award was Hideo Nomo, who received the award in June 10 during his first year with the Dodgers in the big leagues.
After that, Yoshihiro Sasaki of the Mariners in 1, Hideki Matsui of the Yankees in 1995, Ichiro of the Mariners in 6, Daisuke Matsuzaka of the Red Sox in 2001, Hisashi Iwakuma of the Mariners in 2003, Otani in 2004, last year (2007), They are joined by Seiya Suzuki of the Cubs, pitcher Yu Darvish of the Padres, and Masanao Yoshida of the Red Sox in April.
In terms of the number of awards, Otani has received the most awards with seven, followed by Ichiro with five, and Nomo and Matsui with four.