The Legend Grows
Of course Shohei Ohtani also plays Gold Glove defense while on the mound
On Wednesday night, Shohei Ohtani had one of, if not the, finest starts of his Angels pitching career. Five innings, one hit, no runs, seven strikeouts. There was a little bit of laboring, though, as he walked six, but it was still a semi-sharp outing.
However, it was Ohtani's glove that had the people going in Anaheim. In the top of the third inning, Ohtani faced lefty Austin Meadows, who ripped a 98-mph fastball directly back at the Japanese unicorn. What could have been a scary moment instead turned into the play of the night, as Ohtani got enough leather on it to basically pop it back up to himself, then barehand it for the out. Start the Gold Glove talk!
Awww yeah. Pitchers who rake AND flash the leather >>>>. Hell, even Angel Hernandez couldn't have screwed that out up. Just kidding, he was watching the game and probably called Meadows safe at first in his mind.
Ohtani, unfortunately, did not get the win, his bullpen giving up three runs and his offense only mustering up one without his bat in the lineup. He remains 1-0 with a 2.41 ERA in 18.2 innings pitched. Now, he'll go back to his regularly scheduled nuke-hitting until he takes the bump again next week.