Ohtani K's 7 Rays but 6 walks shorten start

ANAHEIM -- Despite persistant command issues, two-way player Shohei Ohtani was impressive yet again in his latest outing at the Big A.

Ohtani kept Tampa Bay scoreless through five-plus innings, allowed one hit and struck out seven, but he walked six batters on 84 pitches in the Angels’ 3-1 loss to the Rays on Wednesday.

Even with the six free passes and a lack of run support, Ohtani was able to hang zeros on the scoreboard as he relied on his mid-90s fastball for 52% of his pitches, and his splitter, which had a 44% whiff rate on the 28 that he threw.

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Angels manager Joe Maddon said the quality of Ohtani’s stuff has been impressive even with the command issues, adding that once Ohtani improves cutting his pitch count, he could be allowed to go longer in his starts.

“That split is outstanding on its own, but then when you add it with the commanded fastball up, it becomes better,” Maddon said. “A couple of sliders there, also. But man, once he really gains even better command of the fastball, and we get him kind of stretched out a bit, meaning pitching on a more consistent basis, I can see him going 100 pitches strong.”

Going deeper into games is something Ohtani has aimed to do. In his four starts, the most he has completed is five innings and he has totaled 18 2/3 innings this season.

"If I'm able to keep the walks down, I should be able to throw an inning or two more in the game, and I wanted to go like, at least seven innings today," Ohtani said through interpreter Ippei Mizuhara. "But the walks kind of stopped me from doing that. So as long as I could reduce my walks, it's going to help not just me, but the team as a whole. So that's something that I definitely need to work on.”

The fifth inning was Ohtani’s cleanest, as it was the only frame in which he set the Rays down in order. The efficient inning included strikeouts against shortstop Willy Adames on his splitter, and against second baseman Brandow Lowe, whom Ohtani froze with a 99.3 mph fastball at the knees.

Rays manager Kevin Cash said the quality of Ohtani’s stuff was troublesome for his lineup despite being able to draw six walks.

“He's good,” Cash said. “Just a special, special talent. Looked like early on the fastball was sitting around 95-96 [mph], and then once he got in a little bit of a groove, started dialing up to the 99s. He had a good split tonight. So that kind of stuff's going to present challenges for any lineup."

Ohtani's night ended after giving up back-to-back walks to designated hitter Yandy Díaz and third baseman Joey Wendle, leading Maddon to replace Ohtani with rookie reliever Chris Rodriguez, who got out of the jam with just six pitches.

After Rodriguez’s quick inning, Maddon said the rookie had some shoulder irritation and was removed. It was Junior Guerra who got the ball in the seventh inning, and after he walked right fielder Brett Phillips and gave up a single to Adames, Lowe spoiled the night with a three-run homer to center.

Maddon said once Ohtani began to look fatigued, he thought it was the right time to bring in Rodriguez from the bullpen.

“Once [Ohtani] gets a feel for it, he just kind of gets on a roll like you saw,” Maddon said. “I didn't know what to expect [in] the latter part of the game, because he had been going so well after five. ... I thought he started coming out of his delivery. That was my indicator, and when that happens, normally you're trying to manufacture stuff, as opposed to just letting it happen. So that's why I moved him out of the moment there with bringing in [Rodriguez] because I just saw him coming out of his delivery.”