ANAHEIM -- After getting off to a dominant start on the mound through his first five outings of the season, two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani has been plagued by one big inning in each of his last three starts.

It’s becoming a frustrating theme for Ohtani that continued against the Astros on Tuesday, as he surrendered three runs in the fifth inning of a 3-1 loss at Angel Stadium. Ohtani, who gave up three runs on six hits and two walks over seven innings, has now allowed at least three earned runs in three straight outings for the first time in his career.

He’s been particularly hurt by homers in those big innings, as he gave up five runs in the fourth against the A’s on April 27, keyed by a pair of homers. The right-hander also gave up three runs in the fourth in St. Louis on May 3, including a two-run shot. And in his three-run fifth on Tuesday, he gave up a two-run blast to Martín Maldonado after a four-pitch walk. Ohtani had a 0.64 ERA through his first five starts, but it’s now up to a 2.74 ERA after giving up 12 runs over his last 18 innings.

“It’s been the long ball that’s hurt me in that one inning the last three starts,” Ohtani said through interpreter Ippei Mizuhara. “I feel like walking that leadoff hitter kind of leads to the bigger innings. It’s something I want to be careful about going forward.”

Ohtani, the AL MVP in 2021 and the runner-up last year, looked sharp early and made history in the second inning with his strikeout of Jeremy Peña. It gave Ohtani 502 career strikeouts, passing Hall of Famer Babe Ruth on the all-time strikeout list, per the Elias Sports Bureau, for the most K's thrown by a two-way player. Ohtani also now has the most career strikeouts in AL/NL history with at least 100 homers at the plate. He struck out seven and leads the American League with 66 strikeouts in 46 innings this year.
  
“It’s a great thing to pass him, but I felt like I could’ve struck out more hitters today,” Ohtani said. “It’s still early in the season. I just want to stay healthy.”

He also worked with catcher Chris Okey for the first time, as Okey had his contract selected from Triple-A Salt Lake with fellow backstop Chad Wallach placed on the injured list before the game. Okey, playing in his eighth career Major League game, had a wild pitch get by him on a strikeout in the second and also committed catcher’s interference in the fourth. But he threw out Peña on a stolen-base attempt to end the fourth.

“I realized how good his stuff is tonight,” Okey said. “He’s a very special pitcher and player. It was definitely a learning experience.”

Ohtani, who calls his own game via PitchCom, also worked with a slightly different pitch mix than usual, as he threw a season-high 32 sinkers and just one splitter among his 103 pitches. Ohtani had thrown just 32 sinkers all season coming into his outing.

“It was just the way we planned to attack them today,” manager Phil Nevin said. “Going over the game plan, he wanted to use his fastball a little more. I thought it was really effective.”

It came apart in the fifth, however, after Ohtani walked Jake Meyers on four pitches with one out. He then fell behind Maldonado on a 3-2 count and left a sweeper over the heart of the plate. Maldonado, the No. 9 hitter, deposited over the left-field fence for a two-run homer to give the Astros the lead.

Ohtani then gave up three consecutive singles, including an RBI single from Yordan Alvarez, before getting José Abreu and Kyle Tucker to ground out to escape further trouble. He recovered from there, facing the minimum in both the sixth and seventh innings to finish on a high note. But he was still charged with the loss for the first time this season, as the Angels only managed three hits and one run coming on Zach Neto’s first career homer in the third off lefty Framber Valdez, who threw eight strong innings.

“He’s really good, but he’s human,” Nevin said of Ohtani. “He made one bad pitch, and it was to a guy who seems to do a lot of damage to us in Maldonado. The hits after that [weren’t hit hard]; there was a ball down the line. Credit to them for putting up more runs than us.”