There are plenty of people speculating how one of the most popular baby names for those born this year and in 2026 in the United States and Japan will be Shohei after what Shohei Ohtani accomplished in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series, hitting three home runs and striking out 10 in the Dodgers\u2019 clinching win over the Milwaukee Brewers.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s also clear is how much inspiration Ohtani is providing for high school baseball players who want to hit and pitch like him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty crazy to do, especially as the leadoff hitter, to strike out three, then hit a home run. He doesn\u2019t have time to regroup,\u201d Huntington Beach junior pitcher\/outfielder Jared Grindlinger said. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely inspiring to know it\u2019s possible to do both at the next level. I hope other kids become two-way players.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grindlinger might be the best two-way player in the Southland next spring. He throws fastballs in the 90s and has lots of power as one of the best players from the class of 2027. He said he has studied Ohtani\u2019s experiences.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe goes through struggles,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like he goes 20 for 20. It\u2019s good to know you\u2019re going to fail and bounce back and it\u2019s going to be all right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joshua Pearlstein, an All-City outfielder and pitcher at Cleveland, said he was in awe watching Ohtani\u2019s performance on television.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s inspiring to me,\u201d he said. \u201cI was in shock. It was pretty cool to see him do everything at the same time. I think the biggest challenge is working on both at practice. It\u2019s a challenge but I\u2019m up for that challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pearlstein said he studied when Ohtani was in high school in Japan, how \u201che was putting in the work every day. It inspires me to work at home to achieve the same goals he has reached.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another two-way player is Birmingham sophomore pitcher\/shortstop Carlos Acuna, a diehard Dodgers fan.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sophomore pitcher Carlos Acuna of Birmingham is also a hitter.<\/p>\n
(Craig Weston)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s awesome,\u201d Acuna said. \u201cThat\u2019s who I want to be like as a pitcher and hitter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coaches have to be careful with two-way players because you don\u2019t want to place too much of a burden on them at practices, something that might lessen or affect one of their skills.<\/p>\n
Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman told The Times: \u201cWhen you\u2019re getting older and older, you kind of veer toward one avenue. I do think you\u2019re starting to see more at the college level and potentially letting guys [do both] because of Shohei , which is really cool because he\u2019s changing the game. I don\u2019t know if you\u2019re going to see another person. Most people don\u2019t see what Shohei is doing in between and underneath. He\u2019s two different people and has to do it day in and day out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grindlinger agrees practices are where a balancing act takes place.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get to do my pitching stuff first, then my hitting stuff afterward,\u201d Grindlinger said. \u201cOr my dad will throw to me afterward. You have to plan around it. Sometimes I can\u2019t do heavy lifting because I have a bullpen day. It\u2019s definitely a challenge but a fun one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are plenty of people speculating how one of the most popular baby names for those born this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[18722,217,423,18724,18723,9251,6763,18725,48,52,51,18726,47,50,49,592,4256,7641,18727,422,17292],"class_list":{"0":"post-24114","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-big-challenge","9":"tag-day","10":"tag-game","11":"tag-grindlinger","12":"tag-high-school-baseball-player","13":"tag-home-run","14":"tag-japan","15":"tag-joshua-pearlstein","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-la-headlines","18":"tag-la-news","19":"tag-leadoff-hitter","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","22":"tag-los-angeles-news","23":"tag-people","24":"tag-pitcher","25":"tag-practice","26":"tag-prep-baseball-player","27":"tag-shohei-ohtani","28":"tag-two-way-player"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}