Skip to main content
Larry Brown Sports Tagline. Brown Bag it, Baby.
#pounditThursday, March 28, 2024

Angels not concerned with Shohei Ohtani’s velocity drop

Shohei Ohtani

Shohei Ohtani made his first pitching start since June on Sunday, and it was an abbreviated outing as expected. What was not expected, however, was the way Ohtani seemed to hit a wall with his fastball.

In the first of the 2 1/3 innings that he pitched, Ohtani’s fastball velocity was in the high-90s like we saw earlier this season. However, he seemed to rapidly lose steam the more pitches he threw.

Ohtani allowed four men to reach base and gave up a two-run home run to George Springer before he was pulled. Naturally, there is concern that his elbow issues may have contributed to the dip in velocity. Angels manager Mike Scioscia said the right-hander was dealing with some other minor injuries.

Given how bad the reports about Ohtani’s elbow sounded early on, it’s a good sign that the Angels felt comfortable enough letting him pitch again this season. Still, when a power pitcher’s velocity drops 10 mph from one inning to the next, that is a clear cause for concern.

.

Subscribe and Listen to the Podcast!

Sports News Minute Podcast
comments powered by Disqus