The Los Angeles have always been impressed with Shohei ohtani, but there’s quite a bit of unpacking from the third start after throwing the fastest pitch ever recorded in MLB (101.7 mph fastball) after the second Tommy John Surgery.
Saturday included two scoreless innings from Otani, a strikeout and three swings and mistakes over 27 pitches. The three-time MVP talked about his outing and his approaching 102 mph on his third pitching appearance with the .
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“That’s something I don’t think I can do in a live BP setting,” Otani said through an interpreter. “So I’m happy to be able to hit this tongue and see how my body reacts.”
For the rest of the impressive outing, Otani compared his current feeling to what he felt with his return from his first Tommy John surgery.
“I felt that it was pretty good to be able to come back and sell well, especially when I first had the surgery, the second time was much better in terms of recovery,” he said. “And when I spoke to the doctor he was sure I could come back for good. I still feel that I need to mechanically work on the little things on the pitching side, so it’s still a work in progress on that.”
It’s hard to see Otani as “on-going work,” but he slowly but surely returns to his dominant form on either side of the ball.
The reason Otani throws a minimum on his return is because the team can’t afford to lose him to a proper rehabilitation assignment in Triple A. Certainly, his pitching progression could potentially return to a faster place than before, but he hit the game 4-5 from a National League home run, with slugging percentages, the OPS leader being too subtracted.
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Photo Credit: Peter Aiken-Imagn Images
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