ANAHEIM, Calif. – There was a time in Sunday’s Chicago White Sox-Los Angeles Angels game that would have passed as an indescribable subtlety, if not for the obvious constraints that came to define Major League Baseball. It was the beginning of the third half. Shohei Ohtani made it through the middle and struck home the 0 – 1 goal. He quickly slipped away from the pitch, dropped the ball to his helmet. On the way to him, he noticed that his back pocket was hanging, so he hurried to put it back and tucked part of his T-shirt into his pants before stepping on the rubber to start warming up again.
I felt like the Little League.
Throughout the night, as Ohtani, 26, did what he had not done in 118 years, a similar buoyancy penetrated.
Ohtani was going to throw and hit and let his talent shine without unnecessary restrictions. Then he threw a 101 mph pitch at the top of the first and hit a 115 mph pitch at the bottom of the first and it felt like nothing else mattered. Baseball, even on the fourth night of the year, was everything again, triggering the kind of organic joy that cannot be duplicated by new rules or different baseballs.
The way it ended – with Ohtani limping off the field, his left ankle tender after absorbing a spike from first White Sox baseman Jose Abreu – was a troubling memory of how fragile this could be.
Angels manager Joe Maddon has stressed since spring training that Ohtani will take over his career and remove unnecessary restrictions.
“The rules are – there will be no rules,” Maddon said in February.
He opened the way for Sunday, the first time a pitcher beat in place no. 2 of the band from 1903. And it was proved by the way the top of the fifth half was played, with Ohtani left in front of Yoan Moncada with the bases loaded, the command swaying and the number of tones approaching 90.
The decision had nothing to do with keeping Ohtani’s bat in line, given that he made the final in the previous half. And it wasn’t the result of missing someone trained in the bullpen, given how long Steve Cishek had warmed up. It was much simpler than that.
“Did you see the things he had?” Maddon asked – rhetorically, of course – after the final 7-4 win of the Angels.
Ohtani, acknowledged energized by the return of fans to baseball stadiums, felt “very grateful” that Maddon left him more than most other managers would have.
“I wanted to get out of the deadlock and prove to everyone that Joe’s decision was right,” Ohtani said through his interpreter, “but I couldn’t.”
If Angels catcher Max Stassi had played that splitter that Moncada threw for the third shot, there would not have been that late throw at first base, which would not have made Abreu come back and score. The tie race, which would not have been left Ohtani in a vulnerable position while covering the home plate.
Ohtani said he felt “good” after the match and added that the impact “was not as bad as it actually looked”.
The angels will not put him in line on Monday, but the incident does not seem to make them hesitate to use him aggressively.
“All I thought it could be” was how Maddon described Ohtani playing and hitting the same game for the first time in his major league career. “This is the complete baseball player – he throws 100, hits him well over 100, hits him well over 400 feet. I mean that’s what we talked about. He just needed the opportunity to do it. … I think he felt liberated. , he felt free. He was there playing baseball. “
0:38
Shohei Ohtani hits Yoan Moncada, but the ball hits the catcher and two runs score after Ohtani is hit by a collision on the plateau.
Ohtani’s rare talent was best captured by this stunning first-half statistic: his fast ball to Adam Eaton (officially 100.6 mph) was the fastest pitch of any starting player this season, and his 451-foot home run from Dylan Cease (with an exit speed of 115.2 mph) was the most hit homer of the season by any player, according to ESPN Statistics and Information.
There aren’t too many questions about Ohtani offensively. He beat .286 / .351 / .532 in 792 plate appearances from 2018 to 2019, then mixed five rounds at home in 13 spring training games in 2021. Concerns center around Ohtani’s pitch. He has accumulated just 79 2/3 innings since his amazing 2016 season in Japan, and many of his recent outings have shown his inability to consistently strike. Then came Sunday, which included …
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Eight pitches thrown at at least 100 mph, more than he had accumulated in 12 previous major league starts.
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Two shots from Yermin Mercedes, who recorded a record eight hits in his first eight bats of the season (one of them came on three consecutive slides, Ohtani’s third best pitch).
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Four baserunners in the first four innings against a team that is among the best in the American League.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so good at both,” White Sox manager Tony La Russa said before the game.
“Oh, he’s ugly,” White Sox utility Leury Garcia later added.
Ohtani came from Japan with the promise of becoming the first two-way player in the sport, since Babe Ruth stopped playing, then teased us with two exciting months in 2018. What followed was Tommy John’s surgery, a rare knee procedure and a 2020 season nightmare included an ERA of 37.80 and an average of .154 beats. Ohtani intentionally attacked the offseason that followed. He trained at Driveline, renewed his diet, changed his weight training regimen, and entered more game-like situations, in an effort to remedy a delivery that had become inconsistent and a connection that had become irregular.
When he entered the field for his pitching debut on Sunday, enthusiasm had reached a fever pitch. Maddon’s aggressive approach promoted it, Ohtani’s dynamic bow fed him, and MLB could benefit from it. The industry has become obsessed with the desire to create more excitement, and Ohtani can create that more than any other player. Therefore, the answer as to whether angels should try to use Ohtani as a two-way player has always been “of course” – as long as he can stay healthy.
Such talent should not be limited.
The angels clearly agree.