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MESA, Ariz .– Shohei Ohtani featured a fastball in the 90s and a Wipeout splitter in his spring throwing debut on Friday, a 41-pitch outing that seemed to validate the Los Angeles Angels’ hopes of being able to contribute as a player. together. this season.
Ohtani, throwing two days after unleashing a 486-foot homerun to centerfield, struck out five of the 10 Oakland Athletics hitters he faced, the last three on splitters that fell well below the zone. hit.
The right-hander delivered two goals, gave up three hits – including two for extra goals – and was called out with two strikeouts in the second inning because the Angels set a 40-shot limit. But Ohtani was around the strike zone much more frequently than in his short pitching stint last summer, and he posted a cleaner, more repeatable delivery, something Angels manager Joe Maddon said he hopes. see.
“Most important for him – success will be the repeat delivery and knowing where his fastball is consistently going,” Maddon said after the game. “If that happens, it will really take off.”
Ohtani, 26, acted as a two-way street for just two months over the past three years, in April and May of his 2018 rookie season, before undergoing Tommy John’s surgery. He spent the remainder of the 2018 season and all of 2019 being the Angels’ designated primary hitter, then struggled to return to two-way action during the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season. Ohtani only made two rough starts before forcing the flexor-pronator mass near his surgically repaired elbow, limiting him to punching only.
After the season – he beat .190 and had a 37.80 ERA – Ohtani suffered an aggressive diet during the offseason in which he found himself in more playful situations as a hitter and pitcher, revamped his diet and his training regimen and sought advice from others. , including, according to sources, experts from the famous Driveline baseball installation. Ohtani’s progress showed during the practice portion of Spring Practice and is now showing up in in-game settings.
Ohtani, speaking through his interpreter, said he mistakenly started “cutting” some of his pitches by knocking down with runners in goal position, but he was happy with his splitter as a outside field and he believes his velocity will continue to increase as the season progresses. .
Maddon has said he wants to ease some of the restrictions, such as when Ohtani’s turn comes as part of a six-man rotation rather than a certain day of the week. Maddon is also open to the possibility of putting him in the lineup the day after he left, which had not been the case.
“The important thing was to put him in charge of his own career and not try to dictate so much to him, to allow his athleticism to take over and not worry so much about getting injured,” Maddon said of about reasoning behind more aggressive use. “He’s done this in the past, he should know himself better than we do, and we didn’t want to create these limitations or set guidelines that we didn’t know if they would work or not.”
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