Shohei Ohtani (29-LA Angels) 메이저토토 took the loss in his first start of the second half of the season.
Ohtani suffered his fifth loss of the season, allowing five runs (four earned) on five hits, three walks, one hit batter and seven strikeouts in five innings of work as the No. 2 hitter/starting pitcher in the Angels’ 2023 Major League Baseball home game against the Houston Astros at Angels Stadium in Anaheim, California, U.S., on April 15 (ET). At the plate, he was 2-for-5 with a double, a run scored and two strikeouts.
Ohtani, whose nail injury hasn’t fully healed, took the mound with a finger protector. With two outs in the first on a groundout and a strikeout, Ohtani gave up back-to-back singles to Kyle Tucker and Jose Abreu to put runners on first and second, but he struck out Chas McCormick to get out of the inning unscathed.
After retiring the side in order in the second and third innings, Ohtani was shaken up in the fourth. He walked leadoff hitter Tucker and gave up back-to-back singles to Abreu and McCormick to load the bases. The next batter, Blye Madrid, grounded out to get the first out, but gave up a single to Cory Zerks to make it a 1-2 game. Jeremy Peña followed with a grounder that allowed the runner from third to score and tie the game at 2-2. Ohtani got Martin Maldonado to ground out to third to end the difficult inning and appeared to appeal the call to the umpire.
The fifth inning was just as tough. Ohtani gave up back-to-back doubles to Alex Bregman and Tucker with one out to make it a 2-3 game. To make matters worse, he didn’t get any help from his defense. Third baseman Luis Renfroe made a throwing error trying to catch Abreu’s out-of-bounds hit, allowing Tucker to score from second base to make it 4-2. Ohtani got out of the jam by striking out McCormick and Madrigal two batters later.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Tigers scored two runs to tie the game at 4-4, and it looked like Ohtani was out of trouble. But in the top of the sixth, the heat was on. After giving up a single to Corey Jenks, Ohtani eventually walked off the mound shaking his head after talking to head coach Phil Nevin, who was on the mound with a trainer.
Jacob Webb, who took over on the mound, was unable to keep Houston’s bats in check and gave up three runs, including the runner who inherited from Ohtani, making the score 4-7 and bringing Ohtani’s total to five runs (four earned). It was the second straight game in which Ohtani was charged with five runs, following his last start of the first half against the San Diego Padres on May 5 (five runs on seven hits, two homers, four walks and five strikeouts in five innings).
As a hitter, Ohtani did his part. In his first at-bat in the bottom of the first inning, he took a fastball from Houston starter J.P. Franks and lined a clean single to left field. In his second at-bat in the bottom of the second inning, with a 2-0 lead and runners in scoring position, Ohtani swung at a fastball again, but this time it was straight down the left-field line.
Down 4-2 and with the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth, Ohtani completed his multi-hit game with a single to left. After advancing to second on a Taylor Ward single, Ohtani came home on a Mickey Moniak single.