Shohei Ohtani is undeniably one of the greatest baseball talents of this generation. This we already know. But when the Japanese unicorn took a perfect game against the Houston Astros through five innings on Wednesday, his abilities nearly hit god status.
The Angels’ starting pitcher and star slugger started off the game with his usual heroics at the plate. He capitalized on some off-mark fastballs and off-speed pitches to lead off the first with a walk, scoring three batters later courtesy of Astros’ Jake Odorizzi’s bad start.
Odorizzi actually had such a bad start, he wasn’t able to get two outs until he reached the bottom of the Angels’ order. He was pulled one batter before getting Ohtani again — and after the Angels took a 3-0 lead. That honor went to Astros’ reliever Blake Taylor, who gave up a double to Ohtani, which allowed two more Angels to score.
Ohtani, of course, did better by his team on the mound than those pitchers.
He fanned his first two batters, Jeremy Pena and Michael Brantley, then got his third, Alex Bregman, to flyout on the first pitch he dealt to him. He retired his next three batters, Yordan Alvarez, Kyle Tucker and Yuli Gurriel, on seven total pitches. Ohtani’s third-inning batters all struck out swinging on his nasty sliders and splitters.
By the fourth inning, when the top of the Astros’ rotation reached Ohtani again, it looked like no one could touch him. Brantley was the only batter able to make contact with any of his pitches that inning, but they were fouled off. He got Alvarez to flyout in the fifth inning, then added two more strikeouts to his total on the night.
It was in the sixth inning it started to get dicey for Ohtani. He got Niko Goodrum to strikeout in six pitches, bringing his K total to 12. Jason Castro then got the better of him, spoiling the Angels’ magical night with a single. Ohtani closed out the inning after walking Pena two batters after Castro. He was pulled after the sixth, having dealt 81 pitches, 55 for strikes.
Ohtani’s final line? 6 IP, 1 H, 1 BB and a 4.40 ERA — down from 7.76 after getting steamrolled by the Texas Rangers his last start. The Angels went on to win 6-0.
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