MESA, Ariz. — Shohei Ohtani knew coming into spring training that one of his biggest challenges would be the pitch clock.
The Angels two-way star made his first appearance as a pitcher in a game Tuesday. He threw 2 1/3 scoreless innings against the Oakland Athletics, striking out two and walking two, without a violation in his 34 pitches.
Ohtani started working with the PitchCom device this spring in order to call his own games. That saves time on the amount of signals he gives a catcher to get to the pitch he wants to throw.
Whether he could pitch within the allotted time limit — 15 seconds between pitches with the bases empty, 20 seconds with runners on base and 30 seconds between batters — was not a big concern for anyone around the team.
What manager Phil Nevin did consider was how the lessened time would impact his intimidation factor on batters.
“When you’re standing in the box and Nolan Ryan’s pacing around the mound,” Nevin said, “You’re like, ‘Oh, hell what’s he going to do next to me,’ right? I think Shohei has that presence about him.
“The quicker those guys work and the more a hitter can be in the box and not uncomfortable. That may change a few things because he has that intimidating look to him and the way he kind of moves around the mound. He still has that, that’s not gonna take that away, but it will change a little bit and how he goes about it.”
Ohtani, after his first game experience with the clock, acknowledged that all around he’s going to continue trying to adjust to it.
“I couldn’t really tell if I was intimidating the batters or not, so that’s not really an issue,” Ohtani said through interpreter Ippei Mizuhara. “As far as the pitch clock, it’s the same for everyone. Everyone needs to get adjusted.
“So far, so good, but I feel like I’m being a little bit rushed. As long as I keep getting games under my belt, I should be good.”
