As soon as Shohei Ohtani jogged out to second base Friday night, I was hooked on the new extra-innings format. Sure, it’s not baseball in its purest form. But it's a perfectly acceptable wrinkle to an experimental season.
The first at-bat in extra innings did not go as anyone expected. Angels infielder Jared Walsh grounded to A's first baseman Matt Olson, who instead of stepping on the bag and allowing Ohtani to advance, fired across the diamond to retire the lead runner heading for third. The A’s then allowed two more runners to reach but the Angels left the bases loaded.