Ohtani Shows Improvements in His Second Start with the Dodgers
In his second opening, Shohei Ohtani showed significant progress, although his performance was limited to the first inning. The Los Angeles Dodgers team continues to carefully manage his progress as a pitcher.Ohtani managed to avoid a wild pitch and a fly ball that Mookie Betts couldn’t catch, completing a scoreless first inning. In this outing, which was his second in seven days, he struck out Luis García Jr. with a sweeper and Nathaniel Lowe with a slider. His maximum velocity was 98.8 mph, slightly below the three figures he reached in his debut. Using the PitchCom device to select his pitches, Ohtani expressed that he felt “much more relaxed” in this second outing. He highlighted a notable improvement in “the way my body moves when pitching,” something he worked on with the pitching coaches. Regarding his offensive performance, Ohtani went 2-for-19 with nine strikeouts in the five days between his starts. He maintained his position as the leadoff hitter on starting days, which involved a rushed preparation for batting in the first inning. After his first strikeout in the debut, he repeated the experience on Sunday. However, his bat heated up later in the game. With the bases loaded and no outs in the seventh inning, Ohtani hit a triple that drove in three runs, with a speed of 101.3 mph. In the next inning, he added a two-run home run, his number 26 in the National League, which barely cleared the fence.“That was the original plan. I hope to add more and more pitches,” Ohtani stated, through an interpreter, after the Dodgers’ 13-7 victory over the Washington Nationals on Sunday.
Shohei Ohtani
The Dodgers have considered the possibility of moving Ohtani from the leadoff position on his starting days, especially at home, to avoid the short preparation before his first at-bat. However, they insist on maintaining a methodical approach to his development as a pitcher. He is expected to make his third start in the next six to eight days, and he may be able to pitch up to the second inning. The priority is the quality and quantity of pitches.“It’s a unicorn. He does it all,” commented Dodgers rookie catcher Dalton Rushing.
Dalton Rushing
“It’s going to be a gradual process. I want to see improvements in the quality of the pitches I make and also increase the number of pitches,” Ohtani said.
Shohei Ohtani
