SOMETHING'S MISSING

A TRIP TO BASEBALL'S GRANDEST STAGE SERVED AS REMINDER OF THE GREATNESS OF SHOHEI OHTANI-AND THE PLIGHT OF HIS TEAM

- TOM VERDUCCI

THE LEGEND of Shohei Ohtani grows with every stop of his unprecedented two-way tour, but so does the pathos. This is what New York can do. The footlights of its stage are so bright as to expose and exaggerate truth. Not even Ohtani, in all his greatness and even in partnership with Mike Trout might be able to save the Angels from their usual appointment with mediocrity.

Two nights at Yankee Stadium in April exposed the sweet and sour of what might be Ohtani's last season in California. A 5-2 win in which Ohtani homered was followed by a 3-2 loss in which Aaron Judge robbed him of a homer in a plot twist that looked like something ripped off from Guardians of the Galaxy, the 2022 MVP winning a battle of superpowers by mere inches over the '21 MVP.

And so the beat went on, as the Angels dropped to .500 even with a healthy Ohtani, Trout and Anthony Rendon, their three $30-plus million players. Ohtani has never played on a winning team in the majors. Since he joined the Angels in 2018, they are 71-49 (.592) when he hits a home run and 202-268 (432) when he doesn't. Watching Ohtani languish with the Angels is like scoring tickets to a Springsteen show-and finding out it's all acoustic. Cool, but you know something is missing.

Now, it's too early to write off Los Angeles as posting a ninth straight season without reaching the playoffs. But the competition is intense for one of the six AL spots. The shame is that, three years into full-time two-way duty, Ohtani is better than ever. The Babe Ruth comparisons no longer directly apply. Ohtani has kept up this phenomenal dual role roughly 50% longer than Ruth did. The Babe was a true two-way player in parts of 1918 and '19, a run covering 225 games. Ohtani is in his third full season of double duty.