Yankees cut Shohei Ohtani’s start short in 7-run inning (Video)

Shohei Ohtani has dominated the New York Yankees so far in his first trip to Yankee Stadium, but the team got its revenge on Wednesday.

To any New York Yankees fans who bought a ticket to see Shohei Ohtani pitch and hit in the same game, my deepest condolences.

After dominating at the dish so far in this series, baseball fans were itching to see Ohtani in full action. The Major League home run leader was looking to build upon his 2.58 ERA. Simply put, it’s something that many fans may never get the chance to see in person.

Well, the Yankees had a different plan for Ohtani. Instead of letting the MVP-favorite dazzle fans in the Bronx, the Yankees hung seven runs on him in the first inning. Ohtani ended his day with one inconsequential at-bat, 0.2 innings pitched, four walks, and seven earned runs.

7 in the first frame ? pic.twitter.com/s27EDRT6V0

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) June 30, 2021

So not quite the same results as his first two games in the Bronx.

Ohtani’s short outing also puts the Los Angeles Angels in a very difficult position. With Ohtani hitting for himself as the pitcher, the team surrenders the designated hitter spot in his starts. And with a three-man bench, the Angels were already short on pinch-hitting options for the pitcher spot.

They’ll have to play the rest of the game with the leadoff spot in the lineup in flux and may very well need to have a pitcher hit ahead of the heart of their lineup. After giving up seven runs in the first inning, losing Ohtani’s bat in the lineup so quickly will make it very difficult to claw back into the game.

Obviously, that’s the risk Angels manager Joe Maddon runs when he decides to let Ohtani pitch and hit in the same game. And to his credit, it usually works out really well for him. On occasion, he’ll even throw Ohtani into right field in late-game situations just to get him another at-bat.

It definitely isn’t the performance that many fans traveled to the Bronx to see on Wednesday. But at least the hometown team is finally putting runs on the board again.