"The last time Shohei Ohtani took the mound against the Philadelphia Phillies, it was the first time all year he looked like a true starting pitcher again. Ohtani, of course, had pitched plenty before that Sept. 16 game at Dodger Stadium, when he spun five no-hit innings against a Phillies team on the verge of a National League East division title."
"During that stretch, however, Ohtani was under strict limitations. He pitched only one inning in his first two outings, two innings in the pair after that, and continued a slow, gradual build-up over the ensuing weeks. For many of those early starts, the right-hander didn't even use his full arsenal of pitches, restricting himself to mostly fastballs and sweepers as he tried to hone in on his velocity and sharpen his rusty command."
"He completed five innings for only the second all season. He did so with spectacularly dominant ease over just 68 pitches. He used his full mix, from a fastball that topped at 101.7 mph to a slider that induced a 50% whiff rate to a sinker/cutter/splitter combination that had the ball darting different directions to all quadrants of the plate. He collected five strikeouts and walked only one."
Shohei Ohtani returned from a second Tommy John surgery and made starts under strict inning limits as part of a gradual build-up. Early outings were capped at one or two innings and often featured a reduced pitch mix focusing on fastballs and sweepers to refine velocity and command. On Sept. 16 at Dodger Stadium Ohtani completed five no-hit innings against the Philadelphia Phillies, using his full arsenal and reaching 101.7 mph on his fastball. That outing featured a slider with a 50% whiff rate, a sinker/cutter/splitter mix, five strikeouts and one walk. Three weeks later Ohtani will start Game 1 of the NLDS at Citizens Bank Park without prior workload restrictions.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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