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Shohei Ohtani Dodgers History Prompts Hilarious Reaction from Royals' Vinnie Pasquantino

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Griffin Goodwyn | Last updated Jun 29, 2025 2:15 PM ET

Los Angeles Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani is no stranger to making history – and he has rewritten baseball annals twice in the past week already.

When Ohtani launched his 28th home run of 2025 in a 3-1 win over the Colorado Rockies on June 26, he tied two Dodgers legends (Gil Hodges in 1951 and Duke Snider in 1955) for the most round-trippers hit in the first 82 games of a campaign, according to MLB analyst Sarah Langs. The solo shot also made him the first player to record 28 home runs and six triples in the first 80 games of a season since San Francisco Giants legend Willie Mays did so in 1954, per OptaSTATS.

That still didn't stop Ohtani from making even more history in his third pitching appearance of the year on Saturday.

Ohtani, who allowed just one hit and struck out one batter across two scoreless innings against the Kansas City Royals, also threw the fastest pitch of his MLB career in the outing. His fastball peaked at 101.7 mph on a pitch that forced first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino to ground into a double play in the first inning.

It also marked the fastest pitch thrown by a Dodgers hurler all season.

That wasn't the fastest recorded speed on an Ohtani pitch in his professional career, though. ESPN's Jeff Passan noted that Ohtani once reached 102 mph while pitching for Team Japan in the 2023 World Baseball Classic – and it just so happened that Pasquantino was in the batter's box representing Team Italy.

Pasquantino offered an one-word response (in the form of an abbreviation) to that fact in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, after the game: "Wtf."

Wtf https://t.co/I6JNOmwo6P
— Vinnie Pasquantino (@VPasquantino) June 28, 2025

Pasquantino also shared his thoughts on the triple-digit offering from Ohtani with reporters.

"He keeps doing that to me,” Pasquantino said, via MLB.com's Jackson Stone. “I just saw the fastest pitches he’s ever thrown in his career – two of them are against me. His two hardest throws. I need to talk to him. I was hoping he’d get on first today so I could ask him. He got me in Japan a few years ago. It was 166 kilometers [per hour], and I remember looking up and being like, ‘What? I don’t even know what that is.’ He loves throwing me fastballs, and he doesn’t really throw that many fastballs.”

Ohtani, who made his return to the mound earlier this season after nearly two years of exclusively playing as a designated hitter, has allowed just three hits and one run and struck out three batters across four innings pitched in 2025.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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