Shohei Ohtani threw only 80 pitches on opening day.
He didn’t win.
He was nonetheless the story in the Angels’ 3-1 defeat to the Houston Astros on Thursday night, his nine strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings providing evidence his audacious claim could be right.
Ohtani really could be better than he was in his MVP season last year.
“My confidence hasn’t changed,” he said in Japanese two days earlier. “I think the fact the team is in good shape has created a good team atmosphere. That’s first. I think if can continue that I think it will help me put up good numbers individually.”
He limited the Astros to a run and four hits, but what was more important than the numbers was how he looked.
His fastball was in the 97-99 mph range from the first inning until he handed the ball to manager Joe Maddon with the Angels down 1-0.
He walked just one batter, confirming expectations his command would be better than it was early last season when he was returning from an elbow injury.
He confounded the Astros with variety of pitches, striking out the side in the fourth inning with a 97-mph fastball, 79-mph curveball and 84-mph slider.
Less perceptible but equally extraordinary was how he changed the atmosphere at Angel Stadium.
“Leading off …” public address announcer Michael Araujo’s voice blared over the sound system.
“Our starting pitcher …
“Warming up in the bullpen …
“No. 17 …
“Shohei Ohtani!”
Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani is taken out of the game in the fifth inning at Angel Stadium on Thursday.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
What was most striking about the moment wasn’t that Ohtani was about to become the first player in history to throw his team’s first pitch of the season and be in the batter’s box for the first pitch delivered by the other team.
What was most striking was how routine this remarkable moment felt.
Over the six months of his MVP season last year, Ohtani somehow normalized what was once unthinkable.
He did so to where his claim that he could post better numbers this year than his groundbreaking season sounded entirely reasonable.
“The ceiling’s unbelievable with him,” Mike Trout said. “You never know what he’s going to do. Nothing really surprises me anymore.”
Trout was the best player in baseball over the majority of the last decade. Ohtani’s presence now overwhelms his.
What does Ohtani mean to the Angels?
His interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, received a louder ovation than most of the players in their lineup.
He’s also changed the perception of the Angels.
The longstanding regrets that Trout couldn’t play in the postseason because he was on the Angels have been replaced by growing expectations they will be one of the 12 teams to make the expanded playoff field.
“I think they’re going to be good,” an executive from another team said.
The Angels won only 77 games last year, but they won 77 games in a season in which Ohtani, Trout and Anthony Rendon were in the lineup together for 17 games.
If Ohtani can pitch how he did Thursday night, if $21-million lottery ticket Noah Syndergaard can pitch close to how he did when he was on the New York Mets, if the heavily fortified bullpen performs as expected, why couldn’t they win another eight or nine games this year and reach the playoffs?
“Our goal is to win our division,” Maddon said. “That’s our goal. That’s the first part of making the playoffs.”
Ohtani was hitless in his first three at-bats hitting directly in front of Trout and Rendon, but the offense will come.
“The flow is what produces runs, so that changes based on whether they’re there or not,” said Ohtani, who was often pitched around in the final weeks of the season when Trout and Rendon were sidelined with injuries.
The subject of a Time magazine cover story, Ohtani shared his two goals in a video interview posted on the magazine’s website.
He wants to win a World Series.
He also wants to eventually be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
While harboring such grand ambitions, he has maintained his childlike enthusiasm for the game, which he has gradually expressed more every passing season.
Ohtani smiled when he froze former batterymate Martin Maldonado with a low 98-mph fastball in the third inning.
He slapped his glove after striking out the next batter, former batting champion Jose Altuve.
The strikeout was his fourth in a row but led into a two-batter sequence that changed the game. Ohtani gave up a double to Michael Brantley, which was followed by a run-scoring single by Alex Bregman.
The run threatened to cost the Angels the game but the performance was a source of optimism for what they could accomplish this season.
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