Angels News: Finger Not The Reason for Shohei Ohtani's Poor Start vs Rays

What went wrong for Shohei Ohtani against the Pirates?

There's a lot of tension brewing within the Angels clubhouse, and a lot of is due to the fact that the trade deadline hasn't passed yet and Shohei Ohtani is still on the team. 

This "taking one day at a time" thing is nothing more than a stressor for the team, and maybe its affecting Shohei Ohtani a little bit as well. 

Ohtani had one of the worst starts as an angel yesterday, allowing a career high four home runs against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday night. 

Fortunately for him, his teammates picked up his slack and won the 8-5 slugfest, sending four long ones for themselves as well. 

The Angels have now won four in a row (five of six) and the tension was relieved for a little while last night. 

“Obviously being able to pick up Ohtani, he’s done that so much throughout the year and throughout his entire career,” said Moustakas, who hit a three-run homer just after Ohtani gave up two solo homers. “To be able to help him out today was awesome for all of us.”

Mike Moustakas - Via The OC Register

It is known that Ohtani has been dealing with some blister issues on his pitching hand, but he didn't waste any time to disrupt that kind of excuse. 

“It was pretty good today, No issues... Just looking at the results, obviously it wasn’t a really good game on the mound, but I did actually feel pretty good throwing the ball...The ball coming off my fingertips felt really good. Other than the results.”

Shohei Ohtani - The OC Register

Angels Manager, Phil Nevin, backed up the Japanese Ace, suggesting that being on base so many times may have caused some fatigued, affecting his performance. 

Typical Ohtani. 

The Angels carry on with the best momentum they've had all year as they take on the Pirates this weekend.