WATCH: Why Shohei Ohtani's Start Surprised Me
The Los Angeles Angels beat the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday to move to 4-2 on the season. The loss dropped the Mariners to 2-5.
The final score was 4-3 and Angels ace Shohei Ohtani got the win on the mound, tossing six innings while allowing one run. He struck out eight but didn't have great command, as he walked four and hit two batters. Of his 111 pitches for the game, he threw just 64 strikes.
He was dominant, but it wasn't an easy dominance, it very much felt like a challenge for Ohtani to get through it.
Our own Brady Farkas from "The Payoff Pitch" podcast watched the start in detail and came up with a few surprising takeaways on Ohtani and his pitching style. You can see his full comments in the video player below, but his thoughts center on this idea.
1) Ohtani throws far more offspeed pitches than you realize. Conventional thought is that when a guy can throw 100 mph, they will feature the fastball, but Ohtani didn't do that today -- and doesn't do that generally.
2) Also, Ohtani uses the splitter far less than you may think. Brady is used to seeing Japanese pitchers come over and really feature the splitter, but Ohtani used it on just eight pitches out of 111. With the exception of Yu Darvish, most Japanese pitchers feature the splitter prominently.
Also, Brady is disappointed in Angels manager Phil Nevin for leaving Ohtani out for 111 pitches this early in the season. It wasn't like Ohtani was going for a no-hitter, he was just trying to make it through six innings in an April start.
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