Shohei Ohtani blamed after Angels’ loss to As despite strong start

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This guy Ohtani is a real slacker

Shohei Ohtani leads the majors in the home circuits and is his team’s top pitcher. There isn’t much more he can do to help his team win. Ohtani allowed three hits and no runs in six innings Monday night against Oakland, his longest scoreless start to the season. He also struck out eight batters and walked only one. And while he didn’t hit a 35th home run, he had a perfectly respectable night at home, with a brace and a strikeout. He even stayed in the game to play right field after finishing on the mound. And yet, the Angels lost 4-1.

And Ohtani wished he had done more.

“As a pitcher, of course you want to have a good game and win, but that won’t always happen,” he told reporters through his interpreter. “I’m partly responsible for that too. I am in the lineup most of my starts. And today I was only able to get one hit. Maybe if I get better I get more support for my run.

It goes without saying that any team would love to have a pitcher who can do what Ohtani does. A good baseball team shouldn’t have to rely on its starting pitcher to get more than one extra base hit in order to produce runs. (By the way, Ohtani’s brace would have resulted in an RBI without a perfect run from Elvis Andrus.)

The point is, the rest of the Angels aren’t that good right now. Not only is Mike Trout still injured, they also miss Anthony Rendon and Justin Upton. Monday’s starting lineup included Adam Eaton, who was cut by the White Sox last week after posting a .201 batting average. And the A’s are just a better team. There is no shame in losing to a road team that is comfortably ahead of you in the standings.

Who even knows if Ohtani genuinely thinks he could have made a better game? Maybe he’s just giving the typical answer from a run-of-the-mill press conference. But the idea that he can be more useful to his team is so funny to me. It’s having the best season no one has ever seen!

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