Phenom Ohtani dazzles with bat and arm for LA Angels
ANAHEIM: Shohei Ohtani flirted with a perfect game in his home pitching debut on Sunday, retiring the first 19 batters to power the Los Angeles Angels to a 6-1 rout of the Oakland Athletics.
The two-way Japanese sensation is exceeding expectations with his fairytale season as he struck out 12 batters and allowed just one hit over seven shutout innings at Angels Stadium.
Marcus Semien singled to left field to break up the bid for a perfect game, but the 23-year-old rookie kept his cool and hung in there to eventually get the side out and end the inning in front of a crowd of 44,700.
“Especially with how my spring training went, I wasn’t really imagining [the start of the season] to be this good, to be honest,” Ohtani said through a translator. “I feel better every day. I feel like I’m getting used to everything more and more each day. But it’s just the first week.”
The highly sought after offseason free agent is living up to the Ruthian hype. Ohtani joined Babe Ruth in the record books, becoming just the third player in league history to hit a home run in three straight games and post a doubledigit strikeout game in the same season. The first to do it was Ruth in 1916 and the other Ken Brett in 1973.
He is also the first major leaguer to record two wins and three home runs in his first 10 games since Jim Shaw in 1919.
Ohtani had performed poorly in spring training, but if there was any doubt he could hit and pitch at the major league level it was erased this week.
Ohtani blasted three home rs between his pitching debut last weekend and his first win at Angel Stadium on Sunday.
He started quickly on Sunday, striking out the side in the first inning on just 15 pitches. He struck out the side again in the fifth inning as only one A’s batter managed to avoid being a strike out victim on the night.
“That’s as good a game as you are going to ever see pitched,” said Angels manager Mike Scioscia.
After yielding the lone hit he eventually struck out Matt Olson to end the seventh inning and celebrated with a scream and a fist pump.
“I wanted to keep a clean zero on the board,” Ohtani said. “One hit would [mean] two runs, and it’s a huge difference. I wanted that strikeout, and I got it.”