Shohei Ohtani is very much human, but that doesn’t mean he’s not still a dominant player. On Saturday, Ohtani was commanding on the mound, although he departed with another no-decision in the Angels’ 8-5, 10-inning loss to the Miami Marlins at Angel Stadium.
Consider that his start against the Marlins began with the first batter reaching base on a throwing error by Ohtani.
The two-way star still struck out 10 batters over six innings, threw 109 pitches and gave up two runs (one earned), six hits and three walks. Ohtani capped his start by striking out his final batter, Jacob Stallings, on an 84-mph sweeper.
The Angels unraveled in the top of the 10th, as four Marlins scored with Jaime Barría on the mound. The Marlins took the lead when Angels left fielder Mickey Moniak dropped a deep line drive by pinch-hitter Garrett Cooper that was ruled a double, scoring Luis Arráez. Miami scored another run on a fielder’s choice when catcher Matt Thaiss failed to tag the plate on a force out, botching an inning-ending double play that was overturned after video review. The Marlins scored two more on a single by Garrett Hampson.
Ohtani’s earned-run average improved to 2.91 with his opponents’ batting average still an MLB-leading .155.
“Any time that he goes out there, as we’ve all talked about, you are anticipating something great to happen,” Manager Phil Nevin said before the game. “What you termed a ‘normal outing,’ he’s usually pretty good for others.
“We take it as, it’s just your natural reaction to say, ‘Oh, it wasn’t that good.’ But if you dive into it, he goes and has a normal outing, it’s really good. It’s like, when he doesn’t hit a home run, natural reaction’s like, ‘What’s wrong with him?’ He’s human.”
At the plate, Ohtani went 0 for 3 with a walk and a stolen base that tied him with three-time Cy Young winner Max Scherzer and Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan for the second-most such games in which a pitcher had 10-plus strikeouts and a stolen base. Hall of Famer Bob Gibson has three such games.
To start the game, Miami’s Jonathan Davis hit a grounder that bounced high near the mound. Ohtani jumped and backhanded it and made his throw to Jared Walsh at first.
Except the throw bounced in the dirt in front of Walsh, deflected off his glove and rolled into foul territory in right field. Ohtani frowned slightly, then pursed his lips.
Davis reached second base on Ohtani’s error and later scored the first run on Yuli Gurriel’s single.
In the second inning, Walsh reached base on a walk and was driven in on a double by Gio Urshela to tie the score at 1-1.
The right-hander gave up an earned run in the top of the fifth inning on a single by Arráez.
The Angels look a 3-2 lead in the sixth on a two-out single by Thaiss.
But in the top of the seventh, Jorge Soler delivered a two-run homer to give Miami a 4-3 lead.
Urshela then tied it at 4-4 for the Angels in the bottom of the eighth with a leadoff homer.
After reliever Carlos Estévez struck out the side in the top of the ninth, the Angels had a chance to win it.
Mike Trout led off the bottom of the inning with a single to right, but Miami reliever Dylan Floro got Ohtani to line out to third, Hunter Renfroe to fly out to right and Brandon Drury to strike out looking.
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Anthony Rendon (groin) has had light progressions, swinging a bat in the indoor cages and, mostly recently, running in the outfield. He is not running at full speed, but that he has reached this point is important.
“Him being able to get to that level now,” Nevin said. “Kind of, the thing that bothered him the most was straight forward running, is what he was saying so, and he’s able to get through that now. So, like what we see.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.