Shohei Ohtani was deplorably horrendous in his return to the mound for the Angels

Someone else should pitch for the Los Angeles Angels besides Shohei Ohtani.

Please send Shohei Ohtani an angel because good Lord, he was terrible on the mound Sunday.

Fate would have it on Opening Weekend in a coronavirus-shortened, 60-game MLB season that Ohtani would make his triumphant return to the mound for the Los Angeles Angels. Ohtani hadn’t pitched for the big league club since his first year with the team in 2018. He was 4-2 with a 3.31 ERA in 10 starts for the Angels the last time around. Too bad he was an on-field atrocity Sunday.

Ohtani threw 30 pitches, only 15 were strikes. He walked three batters, allowed three hits and surrendered five earned runs as the Angels’ starting pitcher vs. the division rival Oakland Athletics Sunday. He was so rancid on the mound that Ohtani got yanked by skipper Joe Maddon before he even recorded an out. Ohtani was so bad he doesn’t have an ERA or it’s hidden behind a paywall.

Could you have recorded an out Sunday, unlike Shohei Ohtani?

Fortunately, Ohtani is earning his contract with the Angels as a designated hitter who slashes .285/.350/.530 in his big league career. By pulling him out of the game, the next time we’ll see Ohtani play for the Angels will probably be at designated hitter in their next ball game. Should he even get another opportunity to pitch for Maddon this year? We’re already running out of games.

Though the Angels viewed themselves as a dark horse AL West contender, they may have to settle for one of two, possibly three Wild Card berths in this one-of-a-kind 60-game season. Oakland has a fantastic team, while the hated Houston Astros are the defending AL Champions for a reason: trashcans. Even the Texas Rangers and their grill of a stadium might be better than them.

Having eight teams in both leagues in the postseason this year might give us the rare treat of seeing the best player in baseball in Angels outfielder Mike Trout play in October. It’s been a while, but the Angels won’t get there if they allow another one of these deplorably horrendous outings out of Ohtani to occur again. That was a 60th of the season completely and utterly wasted.

Congratulations, you recorded as many outs at home as Ohtani did on the mound in Oakland.