The phone of Ippei Mizuhara, friend and translator to Shohei Ohtani, buzzed with a text from Angels manager Joe Maddon late on the night of Aug. 18. This is what passes for the determinative daily diagnostics of whether Ohtani can physically withstand the rigors of pitching and hitting in the same season unlike anyone before him.
“How does he feel?” Maddon texted.
This diagnostic check carried more than the usual curiosity about whether Ohtani could DH the next day or required a day off. Ohtani had just played the most Ohtani game of all Ohtani games: eight innings of pitching with eight strikeouts while hitting his 40th home run in a 3–1 road win over the Tigers.