Shohei Ohtani’s first appearance on the mound with pitch clock goes smoothly

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 spring game Tuesday. He threw 2 1/3 scoreless innings against the Oakland Athletics, striking out two and walking two, without a clock violation in his 34 pitches.

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 time limit would affect the intimidation factor Ohtani has on opposing 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.

“It’s hard for me to say if I was overwhelming [hitters],” Ohtani said in Japanese after his start. “I think the changes will be the same for everyone. Today, I was on time. I do think I had some feelings that I had to rush. There’s still time [in spring training], and the more I get used to it, I think I’ll be able to throw with better feel.”

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.

His goal coming into Tuesday was to make all his pitches and he was content with them. He hoped to get his velocity to 100 miles per hour on at least one pitch in the second inning, but was satisfied with the 98 it topped out at.

Ohtani will be playing in the World Baseball Classic with Japan, whose first game is March 9. Ohtani said it hasn’t been decided yet which game he will start. Although the WBC will not use pitch clocks or allow the use of PitchCom, he will try to continue to pitch a little faster while he’s away.

“I do think it was a big thing to be able to try it out once before leaving,” he said.

Fujinami vs. Ohtani

Ohtani was matched up against a familiar face, the A’s using Shintaro Fujinami to start.

Though Ohtani didn’t hit against Fujinami, it was the first time the two had pitched on the same field since 2014, when they played in the Japan All-Star Series.

“I’m sure I’ll be in the batter’s box when we face them in a [regular season] game, so I’m looking forward to that,” Ohtani said.

Ohtani said he did not get to see Fujinami pitch Tuesday. The Angels won 11-5.