Shohei Ohtani (LA Angels), who doubles as a pitcher, is commanding the Major League (MLB) stage with a modified slider’Sweeper’ at the beginning of the 2023 season.
Ohtani showed an insignificant response to this tool, saying, “I have never learned from anyone in particular. It is a pitch that I have been throwing since I was playing in Japan.”
On the 12th (Korean time), Ohtani started against the Washington Nationals in the 2022 Major League Baseball (MLB) held at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California, USA.메이저사이트
Ohtani scored his second win (undefeated) of the season as the Angels beat Washington 2-0 with Anthony Rendon’s final sacrifice hit in the bottom of the 4th and Logan Ohapi’s wedge solo shot in the bottom of the 6th.
Ohtani pitched less than two runs in 10 consecutive games against the Toronto Blue Jays on August 28 of last year, breaking the previous club record set by Nolan Ryan in 1972-1973. In addition, he also lowered his season earned run average to 0.47, ranking 6th overall in the major leagues.
Ohtani, who led Japan to victory in the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC), which ended last month, is not experiencing any aftereffects. Rather, he is showing a more perfect season start than usual. This season is the first time Ohtani has posted an earned run average in the 0-point range in his first three games since entering the major leagues in 2018.
Even last year, when he won 15 wins, the most in his individual season, he recorded 1 win, 2 losses, and an average ERA of 4.40, including twice failing to pitch 5 innings in the first 3 games.
Ohtani’s pitch was shaken enough to record 6 balls on 4 balls in a row against the Seattle Mariners on the 6th and the Washington game on the same day, but he allowed 1 run and no runs, respectively.
American and Japanese media paid attention to ‘Sweeper’ as a reason for his good fight.
A sweeper, a type of transformation slider, curves sideways instead of down. The major leagues included the sweeper as a slider until last year, but classified it as a new pitch this year.
Ohtani’s sweeper usage rate has increased significantly this season. Even against Washington, 51 out of 92 pitches were sweepers. In addition, he threw fastballs (16), sinkers (12), cutters (5), sliders (4), splitters (3), and curveballs (1), dazzling Washington hitters in a number fight.
There are various types of pitches, but the decisive pitch is also the sweeper. Ohtani threw an 84.4 mile (approximately 135.8 km) sweeper against Michael Chavis and induced a shortstop ground ball when he was in the biggest crisis with 2 out 2nd and 3rd base in the top of the 4th inning against Washington. MLB.com praised Ohtani as “a pitcher who throws the best sweeper.”
Major league hitters know Ohtani’s powerful sweeper but are unable to attack him. Ohtani’s batting average this year is only 0.100 (6 hits in 60 at-bats). MLB.com said, “Pitcher Ohtani’s OPS (on-base percentage + slugging percentage) is 0.413, which is 0.566 lower than batter Ohtani’s OPS of 0.979.”
When asked about the background of polishing the sweeper after the game, Ohtani said, “It has been described as a sweeper for a while, but I have been using this ball since I played in Japan. I have thrown the slider at a different angle.” no,” he replied.
He is off to a good start, but Ohtani said there are things to improve on. Above all, the fact that he allowed 15 four balls in 19 innings needs improvement.
Ohtani expressed regret, saying, “If you look at the simple record, it will look great, but the biggest problem now is the walk. In today’s game, too many walks were given in the beginning,” and “there are too few innings for triplets.”