Boston Rain Cuts Ohtani Start Short

Shohei Ohtani took the mound at the historic Fenway Park in Boston for his fourth start this season on Monday. Ohtani’s start was unfortunately cut short to two innings due to over two combined hours of rain delays.

The Angels’ ace, who entered the game with a 0.47 ERA, held Boston hitless but allowed a single run in the short outing. The combination of poor weather and delays initially seemed to play a role, as the Japanese right-hander’s early season control issues continued. Ohtani walked leadoff hitter Raimel Tapia, then threw two wild pitches that moved Tapia to third. Tapia then scored on a Rob Refsnyder groundout. Ohtani bounced back and struck out his Team Japan teammate Masataka Yoshida on an elevated 98.4 mph fastball, the hardest pitch he threw on the day.

During Ohtani’s warmup at the start of the 2nd inning, the Fenway Park grounds crew rushed onto the mound to pour quick dry dirt, leading to a short delay. The delay took about 10 minutes and was extended even further by a PitchCom issue. The delay did not faze Ohtani, who tossed a clean, efficient inning and struck out two.

During the top of the 3rd inning, the rain had reached a level where the tarp had to come out, causing an 85-minute delay. Angels skipper Phil Nevin knew that Ohtani would have to come off the mound during the second rain delay. “As much as I know he [Ohtani] keeps himself ready to go and pitch, it got past that 30-40 minute mark and I wasn’t going to send him back out,” Nevin said.

The preparation for this game was already challenging for Ohtani and the Halos even before the rain delays. The original start time on Monday was 11:10 AM EST for Patriots’ Day, which meant that it was an 8:10 AM start for Angels players. Because of the unique start time, the Angels rested core players including Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon. “That was the hardest part,” said Ohtani regarding the early start, through interpreter Ippei Mizuhara. “The bus left at 7:30, so I was up and moving by 6:45,” said Ohtani.

The game was Ohtani’s second start at Fenway Park. When asked about his experience, Ohtani said, “It’s one of my favorite parks, so I always look forward to pitching here, but the conditions didn’t allow me to have fun fully. Other than that I always look forward to pitching here.”

Ohtani’s first pitching appearance at the famed ballpark last May was one of the most dominant pitching performances in his big league career. He tossed seven shutout innings, struck out 11, got a career-high 29 swings-and-misses, and threw 81 of his 99 pitches for strikes.

Monday wasn’t the first time Ohtani has expressed his fondness for the ballpark. “That’s one of my favorite ballparks,” said Ohtani after the shutout performance last year. “I was looking forward to pitching here, and I felt like it left a really good impression on me.”

The Red Sox reportedly came close to signing Ohtani out of high school back in 2012, however, they were not on his final list of destinations when he was posted in 2017.

Ohtani is now at a 0.86 ERA, and his next turn in the rotation is supposed to be on Sunday, but today’s short outing might change the Angels’ plans. Angels beat writer Jeff Fletcher reported that Nevin said that “they will talk” about Ohtani’s upcoming pitching schedule.

UPDATE: The Angels have decided to move up Shohei Ohtani’s start from Sunday to Friday, according to Angels beat writer Jeff Fletcher. Ohtani will face the Kansas City Royals on Friday at home in Anaheim. Ohtani works on five days of rest, so his next projected start after Friday will be on April 27th against the Oakland Athletics, which is also at home. Based on Fletcher’s projected schedule, the move will allow Ohtani to face AL West rival Houston Astros and also squeezes an extra start out of him since his turns in the original schedule would have had him pitching on rest days.