Angels say Shohei Ohtani is ‘fine’ after home-plate collision in walk-off win

The inning was over, then it wasn’t. The crowd was raucous, then fell silent. The danger should have been averted, but it was only beginning.

Pitching and hitting in the same game for the first time in his MLB career, Shohei Ohtani’s historic night was shaping up to be nearly flawless. He had clobbered a home run in his first at-bat Sunday. He had fired nine 100-mph fastballs on the mound. And he had held the Chicago White Sox scoreless through four innings.

But then with one crazy, chaotic, confounding play, it ended with what initially looked like a frightful thud.

With two on and two outs in the top of the fifth inning, and Ohtani trying to protect a two-run lead, the two-way sensation delivered a full-count splitter just inside the plate.

With a mighty left-handed swing, Yoán Moncada whiffed for strike three, then turned around to see that Angels catcher Max Stassi had let the ball get away.

What happened next seemed to unfold in slow motion: Stassi spiking his throw to first, allowing Moncada to reach safely and the lead baserunner to score. Second baseman David Fletcher, backing up the play, firing the loose ball back toward home. Ohtani, covering the plate, jumping to reach for Fletcher’s high toss. José Abreu, barreling down the third base line, sliding into Ohtani’s legs and leaving the 6-foot-4 right-hander lying on the ground in pain.

The Angels went on to win 7-4, with Jared Walsh delivering a three-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth.

But perhaps the best news for the team: Ohtani walked away from the collision feeling “fine as of now,� he said through his interpreter postgame, adding: “It wasn’t as bad as it looked.�

According to the Angels, Ohtani simply had some general soreness and will be reevaluated Monday. Manager Joe Maddon said Ohtani would get the day off from designated hitting. The club also said Ohtani wasn’t removed from the game for injury purposes but instead just as part of a normal pitching change after the manic fifth-inning sequence.

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Jared Walsh hits a walk-off home run in Angels’ 7-4 win over the Chicago White Sox on Sunday.

Up until that point, it had been an otherwise dazzling night for Ohtani, 26, who finished his 4-2/3-inning pitching outing with three runs (one earned), two hits, five walks and seven strikeouts, further stoking optimism that he can flourish in his return to full-time two-way duties.

“What he did tonight was pretty special,� Maddon said. “You’re going to see a lot more of that. It was fun to watch. I think everybody was entertained. And you ask him, that’s what he signed up to do when he had a chance.�

At the plate, Ohtani swung at the first pitch he saw in his first at-bat, crushing a fastball from White Sox right-hander Dylan Cease into the right-field seats. According to MLB’s Statcast system, the solo blast had an exit velocity of 115.2 mph and traveled a projected 451 feet.

The pure sound of the bat alone brought the 12,396 fans in attendance at Angel Stadium immediately to their feet.

“That’s the complete baseball player,� Maddon said. “Throws 100, hits it over 100 [mph], well over 400 feet. That’s what we’ve been talking about. He just needed the opportunity to do it.�

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After being limited by injuries to only three regular-season starts as a pitcher since June 2018, Ohtani mowed through the White Sox batters early on Sunday, retiring 10 of his first 12 in fewer than 50 pitches.

From the start, his fastball speed was up (it averaged 98.1 mph Sunday, compared with 96.7 mph from 2018 when he last pitched regularly), and he threw his slider for strikes. The splitter, as usual, was his putaway pitch, generating five whiffs from 10 swings. And he hardly even needed his curveball, throwing it only twice all night.

“Physically, I feel really good,� Ohtani said. “My body is moving really well. And playing in front of fans again, compared to last year, it’s a totally different ballgame. It really feels like I’m actually playing baseball with fans in the stands.�

Only when his command wavered did Ohtani get himself in trouble.

After walking two batters in the fourth, he needed a strikeout of Luis Robert to escape unscathed. Then in the fifth, with two out, he created a jam again, issuing back-to-back walks to Adam Eaton and Abreu that loaded the bases.

Maddon had two pitchers warming in the bullpen at the time, but elected to let Ohtani face the switch-hitting Moncada. Asked about the decision afterward, Maddon said simply: “You see the stuff he had?�

Ohtani’s first pitch of the at-bat went to the backstop, allowing one runner to score and the other two to advance to second and third.

After that, though, he battled back, getting his seventh strikeout of the night with the full-count splitter only to watch the ball get away from Stassi, allowing chaos to ensue.

“It was a little scary seeing Sho on the ground,� said Walsh, the first baseman. “But thankfully it seems like he’s OK.�

Walsh ensured Ohtani’s contributions didn’t go to waste. In the bottom of the fifth, he put the Angels back in front with a solo home run to right.

Closer Raisel Iglesias couldn’t protect it, failing to convert a five-out save after permitting the tying run to score on an errant throw to third base in the top of the ninth.

But Walsh ended the game with his walk-off blast the next half-inning, walking slowly up the line as the ball sailed over Robert’s leaping robbery attempt at the center field wall.

“I forgot that Spider-Man is out in center, because Robert has got a ton of range,� Walsh said. “I was like, ‘Oh geez, I hope this one goes.’ Luckily it did.’�

As the Angels poured out of the dugout to mob Walsh at home plate, Ohtani came jogging out right along with them, splashing a water bottle all over his teammates with a smile on his face.

There were several moments when Ohtani looked “free,� as Maddon put it: a grunt and fist pump when he escaped the fourth inning; a mound visit from pitching coach Matt Wise that “elicited a response I can’t repeat,� Maddon said, chuckling; and even a small moment at the end of start, when he got up from the ground and lobbied Maddon to let him pitch one more at-bat.

“The fact that he feels free to be himself, I think that’s what you’re seeing,� Maddon said. “Once he feels that, now [it’s like], ‘I’m going to show you what I’m capable of doing.’�