The long-awaited return of Shohei Ohtani took a turn for the worse. He started off the game with two scoreless innings, pumping in his fastball at 97 mph and his splitter at 91 mph, but for some reason he cooled off in the third inning, with the fastball at 91 and the splitter at 83. In that third inning, George Springer hit a 77 mph slider out of the ballpark for a two-run homer, and Ohtani’s night was done.
Whether Mike Scioscia saw something in Ohtani’s mechanics or was sticking to a strict pitch count remains to be seen, but the fact is Ohtani was out after 49 pitches.