Shohei Ohtani Picked Up Right Where He Left Off And Was Dicing Up Astros All Night
In my book Astros - Angels was the best matchup on Opening Day, mostly because of who was on the mound. Shohei Ohtani with the Opening Day start and he did not disappoint. Struck out Jose Altuve on a FILTHY pitch for a leadoff K and then proceeded to strike out 8 more. 9 Ks in total in only 4 and 2/3rds innings, 4 hits, 1 walk, 1 earned run. Hell of an outing for Shohei. And his stuff was crisp too, the fastball was fantastic especially. I'm not sure if he's just throwing harder or it was the adrenaline but he was touching high 90s all night. He struck out 4 in a row at one point and was cruising, he made some of these Astros look like fools. Got Altuve for 3 strikeouts too, not a bad way to start your season. And the best part.....when he got pulled from the game he could still hit! The Ohtani rule went into place last night! Maybe the greatest rule in history.
Just look what he did to Kyle Tucker with this curveball last night. Disgusting. It looks like he quit halfway through that swing. Filthy all night long. It was also cool because he became the first player in MLB history to throw the first pitch for his team and face the first pitch for his team as a hitter. Game 1 and already doing stuff that has never been done before. He ended up taking the loss because the Angels offense couldn't do much, only gave up 1 run but it was enough to hang the L. He went 0-4 in the leadoff spot as well, but if I know Ohtani like I think I do he'll go big fly tonight to make up for it. Striking out 9 while leading off is truly incredible, it really is. He hit 46 home runs last year and was the Opening Day starter, just say it again out loud.
He also hit this ball 450 feet to deep right field....
Oh nvm, that was just Matty V losing his mind over a ball that didn't get to the warning track. Even with the loss it was a fantastic night for Ohtani, he's going to do record breaking things again this year and will continue to be must watch late night west coast baseball.