Shohei Ohtani turned in a strong two-way performance on Thursday night to help the Angels clinch a series win against the AL West-leading Rangers at Globe Life Field. The Japanese phenom took the mound for the third time in June and tossed six innings, allowing two runs on six hits and one walk while fanning three in the Halos’ 5-3 win.
It was easily the best start of the month for Ohtani, who had a combined 5.73 ERA in his prior June outings. Ohtani now has a 3.29 ERA on the season in 14 starts and 82 innings pitched and has struck out 31.7% of hitters while walking 10.6% and holding hitters to a .178 average.
At the plate, the hottest hitter on the planet continued his torrid streak, hitting his fourth homer of this series in the eighth inning to extend the lead for the Halos. The 443-foot blast was Ohtani’s 22nd of the season, which ties him for the lead with Pete Alonso for most homers in the big leagues, and the third 440-foot+ opposite-field homer of the series.
It was not the prettiest of outings on the mound for Ohtani, who at times struggled with command and gave up a lot of solid contact against one of the league’s best offenses, but he got the job done and limited the Rangers to minimal damage.
He got into an early jam after issuing another leadoff walk to open the game and giving up a bloop single to Adolis Garcia on a jammed shot after a 10-pitch at-bat. Ohtani was able to escape the inning after getting the next hitter, Jonah Heim, to pop out, but he finished the inning with 30 pitches thrown.
After getting through the second inning without trouble, Ohtani gave up three consecutive hits in the third and allowed two runs to score, including an RBI double to Garcia and an RBI single to Heim.
Ohtani was able to get through the rest of the start with no trouble, finishing the sixth inning on 99 pitches, an impressive feat considering the 30 pitches thrown in the first.
It was a four-seam-heavy approach for Ohtani, who threw the pitch 47% of the time. It was intriguing to see that he did not throw the splitter at all, as he struggled to put hitters away on two-strike counts. Angels beat reporter Jeff Fletcher reported that Ohtani’s splitter has been getting misregistered as a two-seamer at times, but that does not seem to be the case for Thursday night’s outing, where he only stuck to his four-seamer, cutter, sweeper, and curveball. The lack of splitter usage could have been a pre-determined gameplan decision, or Ohtani deciding to pivot to a more efficient, pitch-to-contact style after the 30-pitch first inning.
“Obviously, this is a huge series win against a first-place team,” Ohtani said. “All the boys are fired up because we came out on top. So we hope the momentum will continue into the next series.”
The surging Angels are now just one game behind in the Wild Card race with a 39-32 record, winning nine of their last 11. Despite the series win against a division rival, the Angels’ depth will be tested in the coming weeks with a dire injury situation in the infield. The somewhat good news is that they will be facing below .500 teams in 10 of their next 12 games.
Ohtani’s next scheduled start is against the Rockies at Coors Field on June 23 at 8:40 PM EST/ 5:40 PM PT.
