The Angels said two-way star Shohei Ohtani was “fine” after he was involved in a home-plate collision during Sunday night’s 7-4 win over the Chicago White Sox.
Ohtani, pitching and hitting in a regular-season game for the first time in his MLB career, was covering home during a scramble in the top of the fifth when he was caught by the slide of White Sox baserunner José Abreu. Ohtani fell to the ground and walked off the field under his own power, albeit with what seemed like a slight limp.
According to the Angels, Ohtani avoided serious injury. The team said he simply had some general soreness and will be re-evaluated Monday. The club also said he wasn’t removed from the game for injury purposes, but instead just as part of a normal pitching change. Ohtani had thrown 92 pitches in his 4 ⅔ innings, including 28 in the fifth inning.
The Angels won the game when Jared Walsh hit a walk-off three-run home run to send the Angels to 3-1 on the young season.
The sequence with Ohtani began with what should have been an inning-ending strikeout. With two runners on and two outs, Ohtani had gotten White Sox hitter Yoán Moncada to swing and miss on an inside splitter. But Angels catcher Max Stassi whiffed on the catch, the ball bouncing off his mitt for a dropped third strike.
What happened next seemed to unfold in slow motion: Stassi spiking his throw to first, allowing the inning to continue and the lead baserunner to score. Second baseman David Fletcher, backing up the play, collecting the loose ball and firing it back toward home. Ohtani, covering the plate, jumping up for Fletcher’s high toss. Abreu, barreling down the third base line, sliding into Ohtani’s legs and leaving the 6-foot-4 right-hander laying on the ground in pain.
Ohtani finished his outing charged with three runs (one earned), two hits, five walks and seven strikeouts. He also hit a mammoth home run in the first inning that had an exit velocity of 115.2 mph and traveled a projected 451 feet.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.