Straight Talk: Ohtani frustrates Rockies with six no-hit innings, leadoff home run
John E. Gibson
Host · Writer
"Straight Talk" is a regular feature in which The Sporting Tribune's John E. Gibson offers a full translation of media availability with Dodgers Japanese stars Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki. He will also help translate when Lakers star Rui Hachimura and L.A. Galaxy captain Maya Yoshida are asked questions in Japanese.
The job of interpreters in the heat of the moment is difficult without the ability to write down questions and answers and re-hear responses for proper context. That's where John comes in to help. John currently works as a Japanese-English interpreter and covered pro baseball in Japan for about 20 years. His experience as a sports reporter includes stints at The Orange County Register, The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, The Redlands Daily Facts, The Yomiuri Shimbun’s English newspaper in Tokyo and The Epoch Times.
LOS ANGELES – Shohei Ohtani puts on a two-way performance worthy of everything except his satisfaction, firing six innings of inconsistent no-hit ball and hitting a solo home run as the Los Angeles Dodgers completed a sweep of the visiting Colorado Rockies with a 4-1 victory on Wednesday night. Ohtani (5-2) walks four and plunks one, but whiffs seven to lower his ERA to 0.82.
Q: Shohei, when you look at just how you were able to navigate through the Rockies' lineup, what did you find just the biggest challenge and how you were able to get through it today?
Ohtani: Well, the biggest thing is I just felt like I was just battling my control with everything.
Q: When you have situations like this, what is the biggest focus for you and how you kind of want to either stay in the zone or be efficient to try to … as you were able to get through six innings of work?
Ohtani: Well, there was some good defense behind me that helped me out, and that was huge. But as I just said, it was my control – the frustration from the fact that I couldn’t get my pitches where I wanted to. That was what I was battling with.
Q: Shohei, this has been the most animated or frustrated that we have seen you lately on the mound. What led into some of that frustration?
Ohtani: (As a) pitcher, I don’t walk to walk anyone. I would rather have guys get a hit than for me to walk them. It’s personally something I can’t stand to do, so from that perspective, I walked too many.
Q: Despite the command issues that you’ve had the last couple of games, how much pride do you take in the success that you’ve had, the kind of results that you’ve had the last two games?
Ohtani: As far as the balls put in play, I haven’t given up the hard-hit balls, so that’s one good thing I can take away.
Q: If they could have finished off a no-hitter, you would’ve been part of that.
Ohtani: Well, overall, I think the bullpen has been doing awesome work, and this is every time out. Those guys have been reliably steady. We feel like if we can get it to them, we can have a good chance to win the game – that’s the way we’re winning right now. And the offense as well, we feel like if we can put the team in a winning situation by the seventh inning, we can keep this going over a long period. And everyone is playing with that kind of steadiness.
Q: Did not giving up a hit still make this feel like a good start overall, or are you more just disappointed some all the command and execution problems?
Ohtani: Well, as I mentioned before, I think giving up a hit is better for me as far as my rhythm goes, and that goes for the pitch count as well because walks just make it harder to go deeper into games. So, allowing a ground ball single is more effective.
Q: What do you think led to the lack of command in this one today?
Ohtani: Yeah, it’s about feeling. I know I’ve been saying the same thing a lot, but if both the pitching side and hitting side are working in sync the way I plan, I think I’m going to have good results.
Q: Last two starts, you’ve thrown four-seamer/sweeper over 80% of the time. Why did things narrow down like that?
Ohtani: There was no particular reason. I did want to throw the sweeper to lefties and not work on it, but throw some in, and that’s why the number of sweepers might’ve been high. I didn’t throw all that many in the first half of my outing – I threw the curve and splitter and wanted to get in a good amount of sweepers, so there were a lot of lefties in the lineup and I think that’s why the percentage of them might be higher.
