Ohtani’s MLB honeymoon is finally over
LOS ANGELES: Japanese sensation Shohei Ohtani was given a torrid test in his latest Major League Baseball outing on Tuesday, pounded by the Boston Red Sox’s batting line-up before being pulled off the mound.
Ohtani, who has provided one of the season’s most compelling storylines after impressing as both a pitcher and a batter, was roughed up from the start as the Los Angeles Angels faced the Red Sox in Anaheim.
Red Sox slugger Mookie Betts wasted no time in tormenting Ohtani, smashing a lead-off home run to get Boston on the board.
Ohtani then struggled to find any sort of consistency from the mound, hurling 66 pitches through two innings before being hooked by Angels skipper Mike Scioscia.
By the time he was replaced after the second inning, the 23-year-old had given up four hits as Boston moved into a 3-0 lead.
Ohtani had got his start against Boston after his scheduled outing against the Kansas City Royals on Sunday was postponed.
Prior to Tuesday, Ohtani had gone unbeaten with two wins from two starts on the mound, with a 2.08 earned-run average and 18 strike-outs.
In eight games as a batter, Ohtani is batting .367 with 11 hits in 30 times at bat, including a double, triple and three home runs. He has scored five times and driven in 11 runs.
At San Juan, Francisco Lindor homered in his native Puerto Rico, Corey Kluber allowed one run in 6 2/3 innings and the Cleveland Indians beat the Minnesota Twins 6-1 in the first regular-season game on the island commonwealth since 2010.
Michael Brantley and Jose Ramirez each had three hits for Cleveland before a soldout crowd of 19,516 at Hiram Bithorn Stadium. Brantley and Ramirez hit consecutive homers in the sixth, and Yonder Alonso added a solo homer in the eighth.
Kluber (2-1) allowed five hits and struck out six, lowering his ERA to 1.52.
Minnesota’s Jake Odorizzi (1-1) gave up four runs and six hits in five-plus innings.