Los Angeles Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani accomplished the feat of throwing his first major league complete game a day after the club finalized his trade.
Ohtani pitched the first game of a doubleheader against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park in Detroit, Michigan, on April 28, allowing one hit and three walks while striking out eight over nine innings. The Angels won 6-0.
It was Ohtani’s first complete game since his major league debut in 2018 and his 83rd career start. Ohtani has never thrown a complete game and has pitched eight innings five times. In his NPB career, he threw 13 complete games, including seven shutouts.
With a 9-5 record, 3.43 ERA, and 156 strikeouts on the season, Ohtani lowered his batting average to .186, leading the league in that category.
His strikeout total tied his career high of 111 this season. His fastball topped out at 99.5 mph and averaged 97.0 mph, and he was aggressive with well over half of his pitches, throwing 61 different pitches. He threw 26 sweepers, 11 cutters, five sinkers, five curves, and three splitters.
While Ohtani continued his shutout, the Angels’ offense piled on the runs early and often. The Angels opened the scoring in the second inning on a Trey Cabrera sacrifice fly with runners on second and third, and made it 3-0 in the fourth on a Cabrera RBI double. 스포츠토토
Taylor Ward’s bases-loaded double to left-center made it 5-0 in the sixth, and Ward added another solo home run to right-center in the eighth to put the game out of reach. Ward finished 2-for-4 with two home runs, three RBIs and two runs scored. Ohtani, batting second, went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts. His batting average dropped to .296.
The Angels picked up Ohtani off the trade market the day before. They acquired starting pitcher Lucas Giolito in a trade with the Chicago White Sox, officially putting to rest trade rumors that have been circulating since the All-Star break.
Ohtani struggled in his first three starts in July. Part of it was due to a nail and blister issue on his right middle finger, but it was also mentally stressful with trade rumors popping up daily. In three games, he pitched 16 1/3 innings, allowing 15 runs on 18 hits, including six home runs, with eight walks.
Ohtani dominated the Detroit offense early, pitching a perfect fourth inning. After giving up a leadoff single to Kerry Carpenter to load the bases for the first time in the inning, Ohtani induced Matt Biering to ground into a double play and then got Javier Baez to fly out to center field to end the inning.
In the sixth, he gave up a walk to Zach Short with one out, but struck out Eric Haas again. After a one-hit shutout in the seventh, Ohtani retired the next three batters after walking Biering to lead off the eighth for a 6-0 lead, and then took the mound in the ninth, retiring the next three batters on 14 pitches to complete the shutout.
The Angels, who are 7-1 in their last eight games, including a three-game winning streak, improved to 53-49 and closed the gap to the third wild-card spot to 3.5 games over the Toronto Blue Jays.