Angels’ Shohei Ohtani alleviates concerns from spring, passes test in first start
After looking like he couldn’t get guys out during spring training, Shohei Ohtani looked pretty good in his first start for the Angels.
The arrival of Shohei Ohtani has been much-anticipated, along with how Los Angeles Angels manager Mike Scioscia will use him as a two-way player. Ohtani went 1-for-5 on Opening Day, as the Angels designated hitter. He made his debut as a starting pitcher Sunday against the Oakland Athletics, also to much anticipation.
Ohtani got shelled on the mound during spring training, allowing more runs than innings pitched. But he had a solid 3:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio (24 strikeouts, eight walks) as he worked through some things like pitchers do.
After giving up singles to Matt Joyce and Stephen Piscotty, Ohtani allowed a three-run home run to A’s third baseman Matt Chapman with one out in the bottom of the second inning on Sunday. That would be all the runs he would give up while he was in the game, and all three of the hits he ceded came in that sequence.
Shohei Ohtani threw 39 fastballs today... Averaging 97.8 MPH and topped out at 99.6 MPH. He threw harder than Syndergaard in his first outing pic.twitter.com/65L5HCGOYO
— Daren Willman (@darenw) April 2, 2018
Otherwise, Ohtani was borderline dominant. Of his 92 pitches, 63 (68.5 percent) went for strikes as he struck out six and walked just one. He induced 18 swinging strikes, nearly equally dispersed between his fastball, slider and split, and 16 more of his strikes were called strikes. Ohtani threw a first-pitch strike to eight of the first nine batters he faced, and to 14 of the 22 batters he faced overall.
Ohtani delivered the book-definition minimum requirements for a quality start on Sunday, going six innings and allowing three runs. Angels’ relievers Cam Bedrosian, Blake Wood, Blake Parker and Keynan Middleton combined to allow one run on two hits over the remaining three innings, all by Parker in the ninth inning. So Ohtani also got his first major league win for his effort.
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It’s only one start, in a pitcher-friendly ballpark against an Oakland lineup that overall won’t inspire much fear. But if he pitches like he did on Sunday for most of what should be somewhere around 25 starts, with slightly better surface results probably to come, the Angels will be very happy with the pitcher version of Ohtani this year.