Straight Talk: Sharp Ohtani finishes off 6 scoreless with swinging strikeout

“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 LA 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 — Two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani fires six scoreless innings, allowing five hits and punching out seven with a walk, but the Los Angeles Dodgers fail to muster any offense – including Ohtani going 0-for-4 at the plate and seeing his on-base steak snapped at 53 games – in a 3-0 loss to the host San Francisco Giants on Wednesday. Ohtani uses 91 pitches to lower his ERA to 0.38.

Q: Shohei, when you look at just this outing, it’s clear that you had all of your stuff working. Can you describe just navigating their lineup and being so efficient tonight?

Ohtani: Overall, I think my stuff was good tonight. I was on a good pace, so if I could have gone seven innings, I would think it was my best effort.

Q: In that sixth inning, how did you find … the stuff playing – because we obviously saw the emotion with that final strikeout?

Ohtani: We had the double go down the line, but we held them at second and third, so I just tried to get a strikeout in that situation. 

Q: Talk about wanting to get into the seventh inning. What do you think the need is from your side to be able to get back out there – pitch count was at 91, but to put yourself into a position to push more?

Ohtani: Well, today the score was nothing-nothing, and more than pitch count, it was more important not to give up any runs. So looking at most games, if I can hit my spots and get outs early in the count, doing that allows me to go deeper into the game. But today’s game wasn’t that kind of game. It was the kind of game that went inning to inning and was more about which team could score first.

Q: Did you challenge Will (Smith) on what you wanted to throw during the mound visit before last at-bat?

Ohtani: No, I use PitchCom for that. I select the kind of pitch I want to throw on PitchCom.