Los Angeles Angels’ Shohei Ohtani finally kissed his 10th win of the season.
The right-hander started the Angels’ home game against the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday at Angels Stadium and pitched six innings of one-run (unearned) baseball, allowing three hits and three walks in a 4-1 victory.
Ohtani improved to 10-5 on the season with a 3.17 ERA and 165 strikeouts. Tied for sixth in the AL in wins, fourth in ERA, third in strikeouts, and seventh in WHIP (1.06), Ohtani posted a league-leading .185 batting average. Most notably, he posted his second straight double-digit win.
Ohtani went 2-for-2 with two walks on the day, snapping a six-game skid in which he failed to fire his cannon, keeping his 40-homer total intact.
Ohtani is the only player in Major League Baseball history to have a 10-win, 40-homer season, and he is also the first player to have two 10-10 seasons. Ohtani won 15 games and hit 34 home runs last year.
Babe Ruth, the original two-hitter, only had one 10-win, 10-homer season. In 2018, with the Boston Red Sox, he won 13 games as a pitcher and hit 11 homers as a hitter. In 1919, he fell one win shy of that mark with a 9-29 record.
In fact, Ohtani almost fell apart all at once that day. San Francisco’s hitters made things tricky for Ohtani. That’s why he allowed three walks. He wasn’t in great shape either. His last start, a four-inning no-hitter against the Seattle Mariners on April 4, ended with a cramp in his right hand.
His condition improved and he pitched today, but his delivery looked weaker than usual.
According to Statcast, Ohtani threw 37 fastballs, 36 sweepers, 13 cutters, six curves, and five splitters. His fastball velocity was slower than usual. It topped out at 97.9 mph and averaged 95.5 mph, which is 1.4 mph less than his average this season.
He topped out at 100.2 mph and averaged 98.7 mph against Seattle on April 4, and he topped out at 99.5 mph and averaged 97.0 mph against the Detroit Tigers on May 28, his first big league complete game. His fastball alone was more than two miles per hour slower than it was against San Francisco.
The biggest crisis came in the sixth inning. Ohtani gave up a leadoff walk to Wilmer Flores on a full count, but a six-pitch body sweeper got right on Flores’ bat and sailed toward the left field foul pole. It was fouled off in left field, but if it had been a home run, the score would have been 0-2 and the game would have been out of reach.
Ohtani’s seventh pitch, a 96-mph fastball, nearly grazed Flores’ head. That’s how shaky it was.
Then, Chase Peterson came up to bat. Ohtani threw a 72 mph curveball, but his left foot slipped slightly as he stepped forward, causing him to lose his center and spring to the left after the pitch.
He paced around the mound trying to figure out what was wrong, and manager Phil Nevin came out of the dugout with a trainer. After exchanging a few words, Ohtani nodded and went back to pitching. Fortunately, he got Peterson out of the jam by inducing a six-pitch, 84-mph cutter on a 2B2S count to the second baseman.
Ohtani was seen screaming as he walked off the mound after pitching the sixth inning. He was expressing his frustration with his pitching performance.
“I didn’t feel anything wrong with my finger, I just didn’t like the way I pitched the whole game,” Ohtani said after the game, but Nevin said, “I think he threw his best pitches except for the second inning,” adding, “He said he was getting tired before the sixth, but he wanted to finish one more inning.”온라인카지노
The no-hitter extended Ohtani’s scoreless streak to 19 1/3 innings.
His teammates also helped him get the win. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Brandon Drury singled with runners on first and second to tie the game, and Mike Moustakas blasted a three-run homer to make it 4-1.
The Angels’ bullpen, which has struggled mightily as of late, was shaky again, but it kept the game scoreless. Jose Soriano pitched a bases-loaded seventh inning and Matt Moore pitched a scoreless eighth. Closer Carlos Estevez left two runners on base in the ninth, but retired the final two batters to preserve the three-run victory.