Shohei Ohtani took the mound Tuesday night against the Padres for his 17th start of the season, his last start as a 28-year-old. It was an outing to forget for Ohtani, who came out of the game with a blister on the same finger as the cracked nail that affected his previous outing.
It was a July Fourth to forget for the Angels as well. Their injury woes continued, with Mike Trout being placed on the IL with a hamate injury earlier in the day.
Ohtani finished his outing with seven hits allowed, five earned runs, four walks, and five strikeouts in five innings pitched.
Ohtani’s ERA on the season is back up to 3.32, tied with the highest mark of the season before a string of solid starts in June lowered it to 3.02. He still has an elite 32.4 K% and is holding hitters to a .189 average.
It appeared that Ohtani was limited from the start of the game, with his signature high-90s fastball clocking in at just 92 mph in the first inning.
“It was hard for me to put full pressure because of the fingernail,” Ohtani said. “It wasn’t fully healed.”
Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com noted that Ohtani used an acrylic nail on the cracked fingernail, but it became irritated as the game went on and blistered.
Despite not having his best stuff, the Japanese right-hander kept the Padres at bay until the fourth inning, where he gave up a two-RBI double to Jake Cronenworth on a cutter that was hung in the middle of the plate.
After a scoreless fifth inning, Ohtani was back out for the sixth inning on 82 pitches, but it was clear that the blister was heavily affecting him at that point.
He gave up a lead-off single to Manny Machado, then allowed gave up back-to-back homers to Xander Bogaerts and Cronenworth before exiting the game. It was the first time in Ohtani’s big league career that he allowed back-to-back homers, and it was also the first time in his career that he allowed three extra-base hits to the same hitter in a single game (Cronenworth, two doubles, and a homer).
It’s not the first time Ohtani has worked through an ailment. In an outing against the Tigers last year, Ohtani pitched despite dealing with a bout of stomach flu. Ohtani working through minor ailments makes more sense when considering that in his postgame comments, he often references the fatigue of the pitching staff and stresses the importance of going deep into games and fulfilling his role as an anchor in the rotation.
While this speaks to Ohtani’s character, it is certainly not ideal for him to be pushing through ailments instead of having the appropriate time to recover.
Ohtani is hopeful that he can make his next start, which won’t be for about nine to ten days.
Fans looking forward to seeing the full two-way Sho-Time at the All-Star Game on July 11 won’t be able to do so given the injury.
“As of now, I’m planning on not pitching in the All-Star Game,” Ohtani said after the game. “Based on today, I don’t think I will be participating in the Home Run Derby.”
