This week’s Baseball Report looks at Shohei Ohtani’s first two-way start of the season, MLB’s decision to move the All-Star Game out of Atlanta and the Mets-Nationals series that didn’t happen.
(CBSLA) — It was an eventful opening weekend for Major League Baseball. All but two teams got in their first series, which, in the age of COVID, has to be considered a success. Some teams, like the Philadelphia Phillies have looked good. Other teams, like the Oakland A’s, have not. Ultimately, it’s still way too early in a 162-game season to draw any real conclusions. There’s a lot of baseball left to be played. This week’s Baseball Report looks at Shohei Ohtani’s first two-way start of the season, MLB’s decision to move the All-Star Game out of Atlanta and the Washington Nationals-New York Mets series that didn’t happen. The Los Angeles Angels’ two-way phenom looks ready to put 2020 behind him. After Tommy John surgery in late 2018, Ohtani didn’t pitch in 2019 and faced only 16 batters in 2020, walking eight of them. As a DH, he hit a respectable.286 with decent power in 2019, but that slipped down to.190 in limited at-bats last season. Ohtani flashed more of that two-way potential in Spring Training. And that momentum seems to have carried over into the regular season. On Sunday, against the Chicago White Sox, he started on the mound and hit second in the lineup. It was the first time in the age of the designated hitter that MLB saw a true two-way player. It was also the first time in well over a century that a pitcher hit that high in the order. Ohtani’s first pitch clocked in at 98 miles per hour, and he topped 100 in the first inning. In the bottom half of the inning, he smashed the first pitch he saw 450 feet, deep into the seats in right center.
