'Very good' Ohtani regains velo in loss to A's

After seeing his average fastball velocity dip by roughly five mph in his last start, two-way sensation Shohei Ohtani turned in an encouraging outing against the A's on Friday, showing improved velocity and throwing six-plus solid innings.

Ohtani, making the start a day later than originally scheduled because of transportation issues getting from San Francisco to the Coliseum on Thursday, erased any concerns about his health, his fastball averaging 94 mph and topping out at 97.9 mph after it averaged roughly 91 mph on May 19 against Cleveland.

He allowed three runs on three hits and four walks with five strikeouts in a 3-1 loss, as he scuffled in his final inning and was hurt by an inherited runner coming around to score after he was lifted for Steve Cishek.

"I definitely felt a lot more comfortable throwing this time than my last outing," Ohtani said through interpreter Ippei Mizuhara. "All things considered with my start being skipped to today because of yesterday's little incident, my body felt really great. Not very heavy, at all."

With the loss, Ohtani fell to 1-1 with a 2.72 ERA and 50 strikeouts and 26 walks over 36 1/3 innings in seven starts this season. He wasn’t in the starting lineup as a hitter, however, because the Angels had a short bench, marking just the third time he hasn’t hit for himself while pitching. They lose the designated hitter for the game when Ohtani bats for himself.

Ohtani, though, said he planned to return to the lineup as DH on Saturday and Angels manager Joe Maddon couldn’t help but gush about his two-way abilities after the game.

“I thought Shohei once again showed you the brilliance of his athleticism,” Maddon said. “To do what he's done offensively already, and I guess his ERA is in pretty good shape, too. And just the variety of different ways he can maneuver a batting order. You just don't see that very often, obviously. It's impressive to watch from the side. The more I'm watching, the more I'm really focusing in on the nuance of what he's doing and it's pretty spectacular."

Ohtani’s first pitch of the game was a 93-mph fastball to leadoff hitter Mark Canha, who worked a walk. Ohtani was able to avoid trouble that inning, however, but it was an incident with Canha in the third that really got the right-hander going.

Ohtani drew the outfielder's ire with a fastball up and in, causing both benches to briefly clear.

Ohtani, though, got the best of Canha, striking him out with a 97.9 mph fastball that also saw Elvis Andrus get thrown out at second attempting to steal on the play for a double play.

“I thought we might have gotten a jump from that,” Maddon said. “It didn't play out that way, but that's another thing I'm really noticing about Shohei. It doesn't get too quick, it doesn't get too big. He's really able to stay in that little cocoon that he's got going on and focus on the moment."

Ohtani got on a roll after that, retiring seven in a row before giving up a leadoff single to Andrus in the sixth. Incredibly, he followed that up by hitting Canha in the back with a fastball, but Canha didn't take issue that time, as it was evident that it was an accident.

The hit-by-pitch proved costly, however, as Tony Kemp followed with a sacrifice bunt and Matt Olson gave the A's the lead with a sacrifice fly to left.

After the Angels tied it up with a run in the seventh to snap an 18-inning scoreless streak, Ohtani’s troubles continued in the bottom of the frame, when he walked the first two batters he faced on a combined 11 pitches. He then surrendered a go-ahead RBI single to Matt Chapman on a 1-2 cutter and was removed from the game after having thrown 93 pitches. Cishek allowed an inherited runner to score on a single but escaped further trouble by getting Canha to ground into an inning-ending double play.

“At the end there, I don't know if he really ran out of gas or just tried a different tack because he still felt pretty good,” Maddon said. “But I thought he was very good, gave us our best chance to win. They pitched well, we pitched well. They moved the baseball at the right time and we weren't able to. That's really what it comes down to.”