Joe Maddon has never seen Shohei Ohtani play golf.
But on Monday night, the Angels manager watched his two-way star take full advantage of a much-needed mulligan.
Making his third pitching start of the season at Globe Life Field against the Texas Rangers, Ohtani suffered the equivalent of a snap hook off the opening tee. In the first seven at-bats of the game, he issued two walks, plunked a batter, yielded a three-run home run on a splitter over the plate and threw strikes on only six of 24 pitches.
After Ohtani, playing both ways for the second time in his career, had scored a run as the Angels’ No.