Angels’ Shohei Ohtani has clean first outing with pitch clock
Shohei Ohtani knew coming into spring coaching that certainly one of his largest challenges can be the pitch clock.
The Angels’ two-way star made his first look as a pitcher in a spring recreation Tuesday. He threw 2 1/3 scoreless innings towards the Oakland Athletics, putting out two and strolling two, and not using a clock violation in his 34 pitches.
Whether or not he might pitch throughout the allotted time restrict — 15 seconds between pitches with the bases empty, 20 seconds with runners on base and 30 seconds between batters — was not an enormous concern for anybody across the group.
What supervisor Phil Nevin did think about was how the time restrict would have an effect on the intimidation issue Ohtani has on opposing batters.
“When you’re standing in the box and Nolan Ryan’s pacing around the mound,” Nevin stated, “You’re like, ‘Oh, hell, what’s he going to do next to me,’ right? I think Shohei has that presence about him.
“The quicker those guys work and the more a hitter can be in the box and not uncomfortable, that may change a few things because he has that intimidating look to him and the way he kind of moves around the mound. He still has that, that’s not gonna take that away, but it will change a little bit and how he goes about it.”
Ohtani, after his first recreation expertise with the clock, acknowledged that all-around he’s going to proceed making an attempt to regulate to it.
“It’s hard for me to say if I was overwhelming [hitters],” Ohtani stated in Japanese after his begin. “I think the changes will be the same for everyone. Today, I was on time. I do think I had some feelings that I had to rush. There’s still time [in spring training], and the more I get used to it, I think I’ll be able to throw with better feel.”
Ohtani began working with the PitchCom machine this spring as a way to name his personal video games. That saves time on the quantity of alerts he offers a catcher to get to the pitch he desires to throw.
His aim coming into Tuesday was to make all his pitches and he was content material with them. He hoped to get his velocity to 100 miles per hour on at the very least one pitch within the second inning, however was happy with the 98 it topped out at.
Ohtani shall be taking part in within the World Baseball Basic with Japan, whose first recreation is March 9. Ohtani stated it hasn’t been determined but which recreation he’ll begin. Though the WBC is not going to use pitch clocks or enable the usage of PitchCom, he’ll attempt to proceed to pitch just a little sooner whereas he’s away.
“I do think it was a big thing to be able to try it out once before leaving,” he stated.
Fujinami vs. Ohtani
Ohtani was matched up towards a well-known face, the A’s utilizing Shintaro Fujinami to start out.
Although Ohtani didn’t hit towards Fujinami, it was the primary time the 2 had pitched on the identical area since 2014, once they performed within the Japan All-Star Collection.
“I’m sure I’ll be in the batter’s box when we face them in a [regular season] game, so I’m looking forward to that,” Ohtani stated.
Ohtani stated he didn’t get to see Fujinami pitch Tuesday. The Angels received 11-5.