Sporting Green Angels’ Ohtani earns win over A’s in first start.
Other than HR, pitcher keeps Oakland quiet
Three days after making his major-league debut as a designated hitter against the A’s, the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani took the mound and faced them as a pitcher Sunday.
The A’s knew little of what to expect. Ohtani’s pitching outings this spring had been limited. Preceding the 23-yearold were his reputation as a two-way player in Japan and a wave of attention accompanying his first big-league start.
“The way he pitched today,” A’s third baseman Matt Chapman said afterward, “he deserves it.”
Ohtani earned his first bigleague win by throwing six innings and allowing three runs, all on Chapman’s homer in the second inning. Ohtani touched 99 mph on his fastball, mixed in a splitter and drew favorable reviews from the A’s after their 7-4 loss at the Coliseum.
“He throws hard,” shortstop Marcus Semien said. “He had a three- or four-pitch mix the whole game — throwing 100 (mph). You’ve got to try to get ahead in the count.”
“I thought he had really good stuff,” Chapman said. “He showed really good command today — was able to move the ball in and out, up and down. And we had a hard time getting consistent contact off of him.”
“Pretty electric,” left fielder Khris Davis said. “His stuff is pretty hard — but he’s human at the same time.”
Chapman proved that in the second inning. After oppositefield singles by Matt Joyce and Stephen Piscotty, Chapman lofted an 0-1 slider over the wall in left-center for his first home run of the season.
“We were trying to jump on the first good pitch we saw because we know he has a lot of good stuff to put guys away,” Chapman said. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to do that too much.”
Ohtani struck out three of the first four batters he faced — Semien, Matt Olson and Davis — swinging. Ohtani topped out at 99.6 mph on the stadium radar gun in the first and sat between 96 and 98 with his fastball, mixing in a splitter, slider and slower curve.
After Chapman’s homer, Ohtani did not allow another hit, retiring 14 of his final 15 batters. He exited after six innings and 92 pitches, walking one and striking out six, all swinging.
“He’s got a complement of pitches,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Anybody who throws 98 miles an hour, you’ve got to start your bat pretty early, which makes his off-speed stuff effective.
“The more you see him, the better idea you’re going to have, what he’s going to try to do to you. That doesn’t mean you’re going to have success. He looks to be the real deal.”
A’s starter Daniel Gossett allowed four runs in four innings and paid for two Angels doubles that bounced off the glove of Davis, who dealt with the sun all day in left field. In the seventh, center fielder Boog Powell allowed an RBI single by Kole Calhoun to scoot under his glove. Calhoun took second on the play and scored from there on an Andrelton Simmons single as part of a three-run inning.
The A’s scored once in the ninth on a Piscotty single and brought the potential winning run to the plate with one out, but Jonathan Lucroy flied out to shallow right and Powell lined out to end the game. After winning on Opening Day, the A’s lost the final three games of the series.
Several A’s hitters said Ohtani appeared to be leaving pitches up in the zone early but settled down as the game progressed, locating his fastball down and using it to set up the splitter. Chapman and Davis both compared Ohtani to the Cubs’ Yu Darvish, another right-hander from Japan, in his mix of a high-velocity fastball and array of off-speed pitches.
“It has a lot of life on it, obviously,” Chapman said. “The ball jumps out of his hand and it’s hard to catch up to. So he’s going to be a tough guy to face. We’re going to face him a few times, I’m sure.”