Ohtani roughed up in Angels' 6-3 loss
ANAHEIM » Shohei Ohtani had a rare rough night on the mound.
Ohtani gave up five runs in six innings the Angels’ 6-3 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday night.
It was only the second time in Ohtani’s eight starts this season in which he allowed more than two runs.
Ohtani actually had stretches during which he looked just as good as he does normally, except they were interrupted with hiccups in which he strung bad pitches together and it cost him runs.
Ohtani still struck out 10 and walked one, and he induced 17 swings and misses from the Blue Jays. His splitter was particularly good, getting seven whiffs on eight swings.
The problem was that Ohtani threw too many bad pitches between the good ones.
George Springer led off the game by taking a 97 mph fastball at the knees and hitting it over the leftfield fence. Ohtani then retired the next six, including three strikeouts.
In the third, Ohtani walked Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and then gave up backto-back, one-out singles to Springer and Santiago Espinal, the latter on a good pitch just off the inside corner.
After striking out Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Ohtani hung a slider to Bo Bichette, and he hit a two-run double into the gap in left-center.
Ohtani responded to that by retiring seven straight
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hitters, four on strikeouts, before he hung a curve to Guerrero, who hit it off the left field pole.
The Angels had chances to score more runs and perhaps take Ohtani off the hook for a loss, but they couldn’t come up with a big hit to break open any innings.
Two of the first three hitters of the game reached, but then Anthony Rendon hit into a double play.
In the third, the Angels started the inning with three straight singles, leading into Mike Trout, Ohtani and Rendon. The Angels scored runs on groundouts by Trout and Ohtani and then Rendon hit a flyout.
The most frustrating opportunity was in the sixth.
Matt Duffy and Max Stassi each singled with one out. Manager Joe Maddon then summoned Jared Walsh to pinch-hit, representing the tying run. Walsh hit a grounder to first baseman Cavan Biggio, who stepped on the bag and then threw to second to get Stassi for an inning-ending double play.
Because the final out was a tag, and not a force, the Angels still could have scored a run if Duffy had been running hard enough to touch the plate before Stassi was tagged. Duffy was not going full speed, and the Angels didn’t score.
After that, the Angels didn’t have another hit until the ninth inning, when Jared Walsh doubled. The Angels scored a run on a Brandon Marsh groundout.