Shohei Ohtani calls personal pitches, Ok’s 10 in six scoreless however Angels nonetheless lose
OAKLAND, Calif. — Shohei Ohtani struck out 10 over six scoreless innings in his season debut coming off the World Baseball Traditional title earlier than Oakland capitalized as soon as he exited with Aledmys Díaz rallying the Athletics on a tiebreaking single within the eighth for a 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday night time.
Esteury Ruiz singled and Tony Kemp hit a tying double to start out the rally in opposition to Aaron Loup (0-1).
Ohtani referred to as his personal pitches utilizing the Pitchcom know-how as he additionally did throughout spring coaching given his full repertoire of choices and the addition of the pitch clock this 12 months.
Rookie catcher Logan O’Hoppe singled within the fifth to interrupt up a scoreless recreation and put the Angels forward.
Then Los Angeles proper fielder Hunter Renfroe made an incredible no-look catch for the opening day spotlight reels.
Ohtani raised his arms in delight from the mound and Renfroe may solely grin ear to ear after robbing Oakland’s Jace Peterson with a defensive gem to start out the underside of the fifth.
Working backward towards the wall, Renfroe reached his glove up and made the seize with out his eyes monitoring the ball and landed simply in entrance of the warning observe.
“WHAT WAS THAT” the Angels posted on Twitter with a shocked emoji face.
Ohtani — unfazed after strolling Kemp on 4 pitches to start out his outing — pumped his first when he retired Ramón Laureano on a 101-mph pitch to finish the fourth. He walked three and allowed two hits.
Ohtani joined Dylan Stop, Gerrit Cole and Logan Webb as 4 pitchers with double-digit strikeouts, matching 1970 for essentially the most on opening day since 1901.
New A’s reliever Trevor Might (1-0) pitched the eighth for the win. Dany Jimenez earned the save after placing the tying run aboard on a stroll.
Gio Urshela struck out swinging to finish the seventh after a 10-pitch battle with Oakland reliever Domingo Acevedo.
The Angels prolonged their franchise-record dropping streak on opening day to 6 straight, falling to 2-7 all-time in openers in opposition to the A’s and 0-6 in Oakland.
The A’s have received 5 straight season openers within the collection.