Shohei Ohtani will officially no longer pitch for the LA Angels this season

Evan Desai

Shohei Ohtani, LA Angels. Mandatory Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-USA TODAY Sports

Unfortunately, the LA Angels and Ace Shohei Ohtani have decided to shut it down as far as pitching goes for the rest of the year.

He had a chance to throw on Sunday and potentially spoil the Mariners’ playoff hopes, but unfortunately he won’t have that chance this time.

He had been lights out against the Mariners, giving up just three earned runs against them in two starts (13 innings). He had 10 strikeouts apiece and zero total walks in those games.

Shohei Ohtani was lights out against everybody on the mound this year for the LA Angels.

Shohei Ohtani finished the season with a 3.18 ERA, a 1.090 WHIP, a 10.8 K/9, and a .207 BAA for the LA Angels.

He was remarkable, and started 23 games for us. That was 130.1 innings, which led the team.

Looking at his 9-2 record gives off a bittersweet feeling. On one hand, I’m ecstatic that his record looks that good. On the other hand, I’m disappointed that his teammates never gave him any run support, and therefore he couldn’t get to double-digit wins.

Regardless, everyone knows what Ohtani means to this club, and he was absolutely the best pitcher on the team this year.

He put the team on his back all season. The Angels didn’t give him any breaks. He hit on the days he pitched, and he hit on the days before and after he pitched as well.

There were no days off for Ohtani, and he still put up big numbers on the mound. He even opted to stay in games after he was done pitching and play the outfield so we could keep his bat in the lineup.

One of the most selfless players in baseball history, I’m going to miss watching him pitch.

Evan Desai

Evan Desai has covered MLB with FanSided for 3 years, first as a contributor for FanSided's New York sports publication--Empire Writes Back--and now as the expert at Halo Hangout, the Angels publication for the network. He also runs Reign Of Troy, the USC FanSided publication, and has covered college sports since 2019--most notably USC and UCLA for the Pac-12 Network, University of Arizona and Grand Canyon University for Arizona PBS, and Arizona State University for Sports Illustrated's ASU publication. He has also run the Clippers FanSided publication in the past, Clipperholics, and has made two stops at NBC Sports.