Lars Nutba (St. Louis Cardinals), who helped Japan win the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC), praised Shohei Ohtani (LA Angels) for his strength during the tournament.
Japanese media ‘The Digest’ introduced the moment when Nutani was surprised by Ohtani, citing an interview conducted by American baseball influencer ‘Bat Boys Baseball’ on the 27th.
“Ohtani is amazing. After every fight, he always lifts with ease doing 5 sets of 227kg bench press and squat. That weight looks like an easy win for Ohtani,” Nutba said.
“I haven’t bench pressed since high school, so I’m not sure, but it’s about a third of Ohtani’s weight,” he explained.
Nutba participated in the 2023 WBC as the first mixed-race player on the Japanese national baseball team. Japan boldly gave up ‘pure-bloodism’ and selected Nutba to build the strongest power.
Nutba’s promotion to the Japanese national team was a significant contribution to the WBC championship. Nutba is Japan’s main center fielder, and showed off an Altoran-like performance in air defense. He took part in all 7 games Japan played and recorded a batting average of 0.269, 4 RBIs, 7 runs, and 2 steals, earning the WBC championship ring. In the match against Korea, Kim Ha-sung’s batted ball was caught in a picturesque diving match, which frustrated us.
Even in Nutba’s eyes, Otani’s presence seemed special. ‘The Digest’ said, “Nutba played an active role as the firm No. 1 center fielder of the Japanese national team. While showing the strength of playing in all the 2023 WBC games, it was a great stimulus to watch Ohtani’s every move up close for two weeks, even for a 25-year-old young warrior. It seems to be,” he said.
Ohtani led Japan to win the 2023 WBC with his dominant performance. In batting, he wielded a fire bat with a batting average of 0.435 and an OPS of 1.345, and as a pitcher, he won the MVP of the tournament by showing power with a 1.86 ERA in 3 games, 2 wins and 1 save.
In particular, in the final game against the United States, he got on the mound in the top of the 9th inning, when Japan led 3-2, and earned a save,먹튀검증 experiencing the joy of becoming a Henggarae pitcher. The scene where he strikes out his close colleague Mike Trout, who is eating a pot of rice at the Angels after two deaths, at the end of a full count match is considered the best scene in all WBC history.