Tale of 2 starts: Two-way Ohtani vs. back-to-back Romo
It was perhaps the most bizarre, eccentric, insane pitching matchup Sunday in the history of Major League Baseball.
Shohei Ohtani vs. Sergio Romo at Angel Stadium: What could possibly be wackier?
On one side: A rookie pitcher who was the Los Angeles Angels DH in the first two games of the series, who hit a jaw-dropping 513-foot home run in batting practice Saturday and who has hit more homers in his part-time DH role than homers he has given up in his gig as a full-time starter.
On the other, a 35-year-old veteran who until Saturday night had never started a game in his 11-year career, spanning 588 relief appearances, the fourth most by any pitcher before making his first start. And on just 18 hours’ rest, Romo started again Sunday afternoon.
Romo became the first Rays pitcher older than 30 to start for the franchise in
603 games, dating to Erik Bedard on July 3, 2014. One day later, the Rays had their first consecutive starts by a pitcher older than 30 in franchise history, who happened to be the same guy.
It’s also the first time in six years a major league pitcher has started on consecutive days.
It happened last on July 7, 2012, when Zack Greinke, then with the Milwaukee Brewers, was ejected in a start after throwing four pitches against the Houston Astros and started again the next day.
C.J. Wilson of the Angels faced five batters before a two-hour rain delay in
2012 and came back the next day. Texas Rangers pitcher Aaron Myette was ejected after two pitches in 2002 and returned the next day. Steve McCatty started back-to-back games on April 14
15, 1980, for the Oakland Athletics, going
12⁄ innings in the first game in a 7-1 loss to
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Seattle and returning the next day to go 8½ innings in a 12-3 victory.
What separates Romo from the pack is that he struck out the side in his inning Saturday, becoming the first pitcher since the Boston Red Sox’s Ernie Shore in 1915 to strike out the first three batters and leave a game. It wasn’t a gimmick 103 years ago but a move to give Shore some work two days before his Game 1 start of the World Series.
The Rays, watching it work so brilliantly Saturday, came back with Romo again Sunday.
Romo didn’t disappoint, striking out three of the six batters he faced but walking two before turning the ball over to right-hander Matt Andriese. Andriese lasted two innings, coughing up the lead, and the Rays spent the rest of the game turning to reliever after reliever.
This is a team that’s had some wild, imaginary ideas this year. The Rays originally planned to use a four-man rotation at the start of the season with relievers handling the fifth day. They scrapped that when Nathan Eovaldi got injured before opening day and even tried a three-man rotation with two bullpen days. But now this.
The theory simply was for the righthanded Romo to face the right-handedheavy top of the Angels batting order and limiting the number of times the next pitcher faces Los Angeles’ best hitters. The Rays, along with many others in today’s analytic world, believe that pitchers are at a clear disadvantage when facing hitters the third time in the order, no matter who’s on the mound.
“Three years ago, that was the biggest secret in the world,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “But we’ve kicked around this idea for quite some time, and we definitely believe in it.”
And Romo, who won three World Series championships with the San Francisco Giants, absolutely loves this newfangled role.
“They’re asking me to be me,” Romo told the Tampa Bay Times. “The only thing that seems odd is it’s the very first inning of the game, possibly going into the second.”
Since the experiment worked so well Saturday in the Rays’ 5-3 win, with lefthander Ryan Yarbrough yielding four hits and one run in the next 61⁄ innings,
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Tampa Bay was at it again Sunday.
It’s too bad Angels manager Mike Scioscia didn’t counter by discarding the DH role for the game and letting Ohtani bat for himself, as he suggested he might try in September when rosters are expanded to 40 players.
Ohtani the hitter has produced a .321 average with six homers, 17 RBI and a
.986 OPS. In April, he became the fourth player in modern-day history to hit four home runs and strike out 25 or more in a month, the first since Ferguson Jenkins of the Chicago Cubs in September 1971.
Ohtani, who joined Babe Ruth as the only player to homer in three consecutive games in the same season he started a game as pitcher, even got the blessing from Scioscia to participate in the All-Star Home Run Derby.
Ohtani, who won the Japanese AllStar home run derby in 2016, ignited the conversation by hitting a 513-foot homer in batting practice Friday, off the 49foot-high right-field scoreboard that’s behind 38 rows of seats.
If Ohtani is invited and wants to participate in the Home Run Derby at Nationals Park, Scioscia says he won’t stop him.
Hey, why not add to the legend? Yet on this day, after going 2-for-7 with a homer in the first two games of the series, Ohtani went the conventional approach and simply pitched.
He dominated again with his 98-mph fastball and lethal split-finger, yielding six hits and striking out nine in 72⁄ in
3 nings, retiring 12 consecutive batters at one point and leaving with a 4-2 lead after throwing a career-high 110 pitches.
Ohtani has struck out 52 batters in
401⁄ innings and, after the Angels’ 5-2
3 victory, sports a 4-1 record and 3.35 ERA.
The Rays? They did OK. Romo, Andriese, Jose Alvarado and Anthony Banda combined to hold the Angels to four hits and four runs while Ohtani was in the game, their bullpen gambit nearly producing another victory.
But a quartet of decent pitchers aren’t as good as one Ohtani. And these days, the Angels’ best DH also serving as their ace is as normal as it gets.