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Shohei Ohtani made his first start in June on Saturday night against the Astros in Minute Maid Park. The Japanese superstar gave up nine hits, which ties a season-high and MLB career-high in hits allowed, and gave up five runs in six innings. Ohtani was once again outdueled by Astros’ ace Framber Valdez, who tossed seven scoreless frames. 

Despite solid outings against the Twins and the Marlins in the last two games, this game places Ohtani at a 5.02 ERA in his last seven starts. Ohtani’s ERA for the season is now at 3.42, but he’s maintaining a career-high strikeout rate of 33.8% and holding hitters to a .185 batting average. 

Although he recorded six strikeouts, Ohtani struggled to put hitters away. Five of the nine hits came from a two-strike count. 

“I feel like if I would’ve gotten more strikeouts, the momentum would’ve gone our way. But that wasn’t the case,” said Ohtani. 

Shaky defense in the first inning did not help Ohtani, with third baseman Gio Urshela fumbling a ground ball and throwing it into the dugout to get Jeremy Peña on second base. Ohtani got two strikes on Astros’ star slugger Yordan Alvarez, but hung a sweeper in the heart of the plate, which Alvarez took deep to make it a quick 2-0 game. 

Halos skipper Phil Nevin questioned Ohtani’s pitch selection after the game. 

“When he [Alvarez] sees a pitch like that in the zone, he usually doesn’t miss them the second time,” Nevin said. “It was just in a bad spot. There are some pitch selection things we’ll need to talk about. His stuff was there.”

Ohtani had pivoted from the sweeper and relied more on his other pitches including the splitter and cutter in recent starts, but the sweeper usage was back up to 36% against the Astros.

Ohtani came back in the second inning and struck out the side, and proceeded to retire the next 10 hitters. He got into trouble in the fourth, giving up three consecutive hits to load the bases. Ohtani escaped the inning on a weak groundball off of a checked swing. 

The fifth inning provided more trouble, and this time Ohtani was unable to escape. After a two-out walk, Ohtani gave up back-to-back singles and allowed the third run to score. He gave up two more runs in the sixth inning off of a Corey Julks two-run blast. 

Astros skipper Dusty Baker thought that Ohtani wasn’t at his best Saturday night. 

“This guy is one of the best around,” said Baker. “But he wasn’t as sharp tonight as we’ve seen him in the past.”

Ohtani will look to bounce back from this tough start against the Mariners at home on Friday, June 9 at 9:38 PM EST/ 6:38 PM PT.  

Angels ace Shohei Ohtani took the mound against the Marlins in Anaheim Saturday night for his 11th start of the season. The Japanese right-hander tossed six solid innings, allowing six singles and just one earned run while striking out 10 hitters. Ohtani’s season ERA is now at 2.91 and he leads the American League with 90 strikeouts in 65 total innings. 

It was not the best start for Ohtani on Saturday, as he made a throwing error to first after making a play on a ground ball to his right. This mistake came back to haunt Ohtani, as Yuli Gurriel drove in the runner with a two-out single.

Ohtani then settled into the game, retiring eight of the next nine hitters faced, fanning four of them. He ran into trouble in the fifth, allowing consecutive singles to open the inning. It seemed like he was going escape the jam after getting Jonathan Davis to ground out into a double play to shortstop, however, he walked the next hitter and gave up a two-out RBI single to Luis Arraez. 

“It wasn’t good, wasn’t bad. At least I got through six innings so that was good, but I could’ve done better in the situations that I allowed those runs,” Ohtani said.

Ohtani wrapped up his outing by striking out the final four hitters faced and finished with 109 pitches, his second-highest total on the season. Control issues affected Ohtani, who issued three walks, preventing him from being as efficient as he wanted to be. 

“Walking three hitters feels pretty wasteful,” Ohtani said. 

Ohtani’s sweeper usage was back up to 39% in this start, compared to the last few starts where he did not throw it more than 30%. He got 12 whiffs from the sweeper, which was back to looking like his best pitch. Seven of his strikeouts came from the sweeper. The splitter was ineffective on Saturday, with both RBI singles coming off of a splitter. Ohtani was unable to get any whiffs from the splitter in eight swings.  

“The movement [of the splitter] itself isn’t bad, I think the location is the problem,” Ohtani said. 

The average horizontal movement of Ohtani’s splitter was up to 10 inches compared to the season average of seven inches, according to Baseball Savant.

Ohtani’s six innings were not enough for the Angels, however, who lost 8-5 in extra innings. Despite the recent rough patch after his blistering hot start to the season, Ohtani has been a stabilizing presence in an otherwise inconsistent Angels rotation.

Ohtani will face the Astros for an AL West showdown on June 2 at 8:10 PM EST/5:10 PM PT for his next start.

Shohei Ohtani made his 10th start of the season Sunday afternoon against the Twins. It was a bounce-back performance for the Halos ace, who ended his streak of home runs allowed and held the Twins to just two hits and one run in six innings while fanning nine. The Japanese hurler’s season ERA is down to 3.03 and is striking out hitters at a 34.6% rate. He is also leading the majors with a .142 opponent batting average. 

Although he held the Twins to two hits, Ohtani regretted walking three batters and hitting one. He was able to pitch around it, however, and gave the Angels the length that they needed from him. The sole run came from a Carlos Correa double in the 3rd inning. 

Ohtani has consistently provided the Angels staff with length. Sunday was the fifth time out of the last six starts that Ohtani lasted at least six innings. It was an encouraging performance for the 2021 AL MVP, who has been going through a rut on the mound. 

Ohtani closed out his strong performance by striking out the side in the sixth inning. He did not get the decision, but the Angels got the win off of a Mickey Moniak go-ahead two-run double in the seventh.

The trend of decreased sweeper usage for Ohtani continued on Sunday, with usage down to  27% from his season average of over 40%. He did not throw the sweeper until the 10th pitch of the game. The adjustment comes from hitters going deep five times on the sweeper. He pivoted and instead relied heavily on his cutter and splitter. 

“I kept the pitch percentages in mind,” Ohtani said. “I threw a few hittable pitches, but since they weren’t sitting on it [like the sweeper] I was able to get away with it.”

The improved approach paid dividends, as Ohtani matched his season-high of 22 whiffs that he recorded on April 21 against the Royals. 

“I was trying to control the home runs and not make them feel comfortable at the plate. I was trying to make sure they were not taking good swings,” Ohtani said.

Former Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka said that even if Ohtani wasn’t throwing the sweeper, the thought of his sweeper was enough to keep hitters on their toes. He noted the pitch sequencing in Ohtani’s sixth-inning matchup with Carlos Correa. 

“After getting to two strikes against Correa, his fourth pitch was a splitter on the outside to try to get him out, but this was a ball. Correa was probably expecting a sweeper next, but Ohtani elected to throw the fastball so he was late and struck out,” Matsuzaka said. “Every pitch can be an outpitch for him. I think that he reestablished himself as a pitcher who’s hard to break down.” 

Ohtani’s next projected start is at home on May 28 against the Miami Marlins and their #1 pitching prospect Eury Perez at 4:07 PM EST/1:07 PM PT.

Shohei Ohtani made his ninth start of the season Monday night against the Orioles. It was another shaky start for the Japanese right-hander, who tossed seven innings in 98 pitches, struck out five, and gave up five earned runs off of three home runs. Ohtani’s ERA for the season is now at 3.23.

Ohtani has now allowed at least three runs in four straight starts, something that has never happened in his career. It was just the third time in his career that he gave up three home runs in a start and the second time against the Orioles.

Hanging sweepers continue to haunt Ohtani, with Adam Frazier and Anthony Santander capitalizing on mistakes with two-run homers in the 2nd and 3rd innings. Although hitters are only hitting .138 against Ohtani’s sweeper,  they have homered five times off of it. Last season, hitters homered off of the only sweeper six times

Heavily relying on the sweeper was not an issue against the Orioles. Ohtani’s sweeper usage was at a season-low 27% on Monday night, and he mixed in his cutter and split-fingered fastball at a higher rate, showing different looks to hitters. The problem was the poor location of sweepers at the heart of the plate.

“I’ve noticed a couple of things [about the sweeper], so if I keep making corrections it will still be effective,” Ohtani said after the game.

Ohtani also gave up a rare home run off of a fastball to Cedric Mullins in the fifth inning. He only allowed three home runs off a fastball last season, and Mullins’ homer was the first this season. He retired 13 of the last 15 hitters faced and completed seven innings.

Despite giving up multiple long balls, Ohtani allowed just four hits against the Orioles. Even with the recent four-game pitching slump, hitters are only hitting .171 against Ohtani this season.

Although it was a night to forget on the mound Ohtani more than made up for it at the plate, going 4 for 5 with 3 RBI and a walk and finishing a double-shy of the cycle. The 2021 AL MVP’s towering three-run homer traveled 456 feet and recorded an exit velocity of 114.6 mph. It was the longest homer of the season for Ohtani.

“I think there was a little anger behind that swing,” said Halos skipper Phil Nevin.”An impressive night. I know he gave up the five runs, but like I said, the damage was minimal because the hits were down and not a lot of guys on base.”

Ohtani got the chance to complete the cycle in the ninth after a Mike Trout walk but settled for a single to left field after getting behind on the count at 0-2.

“I was trying [to get a double], but I got down in the count so I wanted to make contact,” Ohtani said. “At least I was able to get a hit so that was good.”

Ohtani’s next projected start is at home against the Twins on Sunday at 4:07 PM EST/1:07 PM PST