Shohei Ohtani says blister shouldn't be a problem, despite early exit

Joseph D'Hippolito

Shohei Ohtani says blister shouldn't be a problem, despite early exit image

ANAHEIM, Calif. — The fairy tale is over. Now comes uncomfortable reality.

In front of a sellout crowd of 44,822 — the largest attendance at Angel Stadium this year and the second-largest since its renovation in 1998 — Shohei Othani experienced his most frustrating performance of the season Tuesday night.

In his third start on the mound — and his first since taking a perfect game into the seventh inning against the Athletics on April 8 — Ohtani lasted just two innings against the major leagues' winningest team, the Red Sox, who staged a 10-1 rout.

MORE: Three takeaways from Ohtani's abbreviated start

The right-hander began the game by allowing a leadoff home run to Mookie Betts. Fifty-nine pitches later, Ohtani left with his first major-league loss — and with a blister on the middle finger of his right hand.

"The blister actually developed in my last start," the 23-year-old Ohtani said through his translator. "After I was done with my last start, people took a look at it and felt it would be fine for today. I also felt the same way.

"I tried to pitch today but with the high intensity of the game, it didn't hold up too well. The medical staff looked at it after the second inning, and they wanted to play it safe. I wanted to go back out but they just told me we should end the night right there."

Ohtani had problems with blisters while pitching for the Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan's Pacific League. Naoyuki Yanagihara, a reporter with Sports Nippon, said that Ohtani did not pitch for six weeks during the Pacific League's 2016 season because of blisters.

"He didn't say anything in warmups about it bothering him," said Angels manager Mike Scioscia, who offered no indication when Ohtani would pitch again. "He got through two innings but we didn't want him to get any worse, just make sure he can bounce back for his next start. It definitely affected his command on some pitches, sure.

"Obviously, this is a new wrinkle right now, with the blister coming up. We'll read how we get into it later in the week. He's going to hit a couple of times, obviously, before he pitches again, so we'll see where everything sets up." 

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Ohtani expressed confidence in his ability not to let blisters derail his progress.

"Since my days with the Fighters, I've always had the blister in the same area," he said. "In Japan, I pitched without it fully healing. I was part of the rotation. I didn't skip days or anything. I kind of fought through it. I think it's going to be something similar this time around, too.

"I have a decent idea of how long it's going to take to recover and heal. I'm going to take it day by day, talk with the medical staff, and go from there."

Against the Red Sox, the blister played a pivotal role. Ohtani threw 66 pitches but just 34 strikes in his two innings, managed just one strikeout and allowed two walks, three runs and four hits.

"I didn't have good command of my splitter; I threw it in the dirt a lot," he said. "My fastball, I didn't have good feel on my fingertips, the same with the slider. I didn't have a really good feel on the ball."

Betts, for one, noticed.

"He wasn't able to find that splitter for strikes," the Sox's right fielder said, "so we did a good job of laying off of it, backing him into a corner and making him throw pitches that he probably didn't want to in situations he didn't want to."

With Ohtani's splitter malfunctioning, the Red Sox could disregard it and concentrate on his fastball.

"That was the main thing," Betts said. "We knew that was one of his bread-and-butter pitches. If you lay off that, you may have some success, but he also throws 100 (mph). The stuff's there. Everything's there. He's got it all."

MORE: Shohei Ohtani's baseball timeline

Betts demonstrated his approach as the game's first batter. After falling behind 1-2, he took two splitters in the dirt before dinking a 96 mph fastball foul down the third-base line. Then Betts propelled a 97 mph fastball at his knees over the fence in left-center field for the first of his three home runs.

Betts began the game ranked second in average, second in runs scored, fourth in on-base percentage and fourth in slugging percentage in the American League. In the second inning, far weaker hitters magnified Ohtani's problems.

Jackie Bradley Jr., batting .191, lined a single with one out. Christian Vazquez, batting .214, followed with a walk. Brock Holt, batting .167, hit a sinking line drive that brought Bradley home and sent Vazquez to second. After Betts walked to load the bases, Andrew Benintendi hit a sacrifice fly to score Vazquez and give Boston a 3-0 lead.

After the game, a reporter asked whether Ohtani felt helpless without command of any of his pitches. Ohtani's answer provided insight into his mentality. 

"Obviously, I'm not going to be at the top of my game at every start," he said. "It's probably more than half of my starts where I'm not going to be at the top of my game. When I don't have my best stuff, I can fight through the game. Every pitcher goes through it, not just me. That's another thing I need to learn to get better at."

Joseph D'Hippolito