ANAHEIM, California – Shohei Ohtani threw a baseball 101 mph in the top of the first, and hit a baseball 115 mph half an inning later, a poignant start to a historic Sunday night for the two-sided sensation of the Los Angeles Angels.
Ohtani, who pitched and batted in the same game for the first time in his career, retired three of the first four Chicago White Sox-batters he faced in the top half of the first inning and threw three pitches with three figures – including a 101 mph fastball to Adam Eaton, which was followed by a nasty splitter in the sand to score a strikeout.
In the bottom half, Ohtani turned in the first throw he saw from White Sox right-handed Dylan Cease – a chest-high fastball at 97 mph – and launched him 451 feet to right field, giving himself some early running support.
Ohtani’s pitch against Eaton (officially 100.6 mph) was the fastest pitch by any starting pitcher this season, and his home run (with a run-out speed of 115.2 mph) was the hardest homer of the season by any player.
Ohtani, who underwent Tommy John surgery after his rookie season, had collected only 53⅓ innings as a pitcher since his Major League-debut in 2018. But Angels manager Joe Maddon has committed to him as a two-way player in 2021 and has lifted a lot. of the restrictions that had been previously set, which prevented him from being in the lineup the day before, the day after, and the day of his starts.
On Sunday, he became the first starting pitcher to hit second in a game since Jack Dunleavy in 1903.