April 20, 2022: Shohei Ohtani makes history by batting twice before throwing a pitch as Angels blank Astros

The 29,049 fans who came to Minute Maid Park to cheer for the Houston Astros on April 20, 2022, didn’t have much opportunity to do that, as their team was shut out by the visiting Los Angeles Angels. As a consolation prize, however, they saw Los Angeles’ Shohei Ohtani make baseball history. He batted twice in the Angels’ six-run first inning before throwing the first pitch of his dominant outing against the defending AL champions.

Ohtani, the reigning American League MVP, had faced the Astros on Opening Day1 at Angel Stadium. He allowed only one run on four hits with nine strikeouts, but was outdueled by Framber Valdez in an eventual 3-1 loss. Ohtani’s next outing was disastrous—six runs in 3⅔ innings against the Texas Rangers left his ERA at 7.56. “His command wasn’t as sharp. He wasn’t on top of this game. It’s going to happen,” explained Angels manager Joe Maddon.2

So which Ohtani would take the mound this evening? The 27-year-old righty was still looking for his first career win against the Astros—he had an 0-3 record against them in six starts. He had come close—he allowed one run in seven innings in a hard-luck no-decision on May 11, 2021.

Starting for Houston, which wore its blue-and-sunset “Space City” City Connect uniforms for the first time,3 was 10-year-veteran Jake Odorizzi (0-1, 6.48 ERA). Odorizzi’s first two outings of 2022, including his April 8 start against the Angels, had both been less than five innings. His batterymate, Jason Castro, was making his 800th career start as a catcher.4

Ohtani was in the Angels’ lineup batting leadoff, at designated hitter. In response to Ohtani’s emergence as a pitcher and a hitter, Major League Baseball had changed its rules for 2022 to allow players with dual starting pitcher/designated hitter roles to remain in the game at designated hitter even when replaced by a relief pitcher.5

Odorizzi, who had not walked any Angels when he faced them two weeks earlier, walked Ohtani to start the game. When Ohtani reached first base, he put on protective gloves rather than the sliding mitts used by other players. Taylor Ward followed with a seeing-eye single into left. Jared Walsh worked the count full and walked to load the bases.

That second walk triggered an early visit from Astros pitching coach Josh Miller. It didn’t help—Anthony Rendon also walked on a full count, scoring Ohtani and provoking Minute Maid Park’s boobirds. Brandon Marsh’s line-drive single to right scored Ward, while reliever Blake Taylor started throwing in the bullpen. It looked as if Odorizzi might limit the damage when he struck out Max Stassi and Jo Adell, finally giving the crowd a reason to cheer. But the boos returned when Tyler Wade walked for a 3-0 Angels lead.

Astros manager Dusty Baker called in Taylor from the bullpen. On the way back to the dugout, Odorizzi had a few words for home-plate umpire Jerry Meals about a tight strike zone. The Astros could have been out of the inning on Andrew Velazquez’s grounder to first, but it was bobbled by first baseman Yuli Gurriel. The throw to Taylor covering first was a beat too late—Velazquez dove into first with his hand just beating Taylor’s foot. That put another run on the board.

The Angels had reached the top of the order again. Ohtani, showing the skills that earned him the 2021 Silver Slugger Award,6 smacked a stand-up double off the top of the scoreboard in front of the Crawford Boxes, scoring two more to make it 6-0. Ward’s popout to short center finally ended the inning about 25 minutes after it started. The crowd cheered, happy to see the Astros finally end the inning.

Ohtani took the mound as the first pitcher since at least 1900 to bat twice before throwing a pitch.7 Broadcasters for both teams confirmed the feat as soon as they could get verification.8 Given that pitchers typically have batted eighth or ninth, it wasn’t surprising that this hadn’t occurred before.9 In 2022, when Ohtani was both pitching and batting leadoff in the same game, the circumstances were ripe for baseball history to be made.

Jeremy Peña was the leadoff batter for the Astros. He was a rookie with only 10 games on his ledger, but six were against the Angels—with eight hits, including two home runs, to show for it. He didn’t have a hit against Ohtani, though, and that didn’t change since he struck out. Ohtani followed by striking out Michael Brantley, who angrily slammed his bat and broke it. Alex Bregman swung at the first pitch and flied out.

Taylor and relief pitcher Cristian Javier limited the Angels to one baserunner per inning in the second inning through the fifth. None of the runners scored.

Meanwhile, Ohtani mowed down the Astros with a variety of bat-dodging sliders and splitters. In the second through the fifth, he struck out each Astros batter at least once, fanning the side in the third and fourth innings. Catcher Stassi was using traditional pitch calling—no need for the PitchCom10 device with no runners on base. When Ohtani ended the fifth inning with a strikeout of Gurriel, the 2021 AL batting champion, 15 straight Astros had been retired.

The well-traveled11 Velazquez opened the sixth by bidding for his first home run as an Angel. He came close—Jose Siri just avoided colliding with center fielder Kyle Tucker and caught it on the warning track. Ohtani bunted Javier’s first pitch to the left of the mound. He might have been safe anyway, but the pitcher’s throw went to the wall. Ohtani, seeing the overthrow, made a slight turn toward second, so he scrambled back to first. Ward struck out, but not before Javier tried four pickoff throws since Ohtani was dancing off first.12 Phil Maton came in to get the last out, and he too tried to pick off Ohtani before inducing a Walsh groundout.

Niko Goodrum tried to bunt Ohtani’s first pitch of the sixth, but it went foul. There was some booing from the crowd—apparently some fans were believers in the unwritten rule “don’t bunt to break up a no-hitter.” Goodrum struck out, giving Ohtani a dozen strikeouts, matching his career high from his second major-league game on April 8, 2018.

Castro, a teammate of Ohtani’s in 2020, was the next batter. His first hit of the season, a liner into center, ended the perfect-game bid. The crowd roared as if he’d hit a home run. Siri popped out on the next pitch, but Ohtani walked Peña, giving the crowd another reason to cheer. That was all they had to cheer for—Brantley grounded out to end the threat.

Ohtani finished his six innings of work on 81 pitches, allowing only two baserunners. He had been on base more than the entire Astros team, and had more hits (two) than he had allowed (one).

Maton continued pitching for the Astros in the seventh, but not very well—he plunked Rendon on the shoulder with his first pitch and grazed Marsh’s shin with the fourth. He got out of the inning when Stassi grounded into a double play and Adell flied out.

Ryan Tepera pitched in relief of Ohtani, working clean seventh and eighth innings.

Rafael Montero pitched the eighth for the Astros. Ohtani – now solely the designated hitter – was up third with two out and flied out to left. Ryne Stanek was equally efficient in the ninth, working another clean inning for the Astros.

In front of a thinning crowd, Angels closer Raisel Iglesias took the mound. He hadn’t pitched in a game since April 15, so Maddon gave him some work in a nonsave situation. Iglesias closed out the game on 11 pitches.

Ohtani joined the victory high-five line, taking the game ball and putting it in his pocket. Fans collected around the dugout to film the postgame interview with Ohtani through his translator. “Not sure if I’d have been able to finish it, given my pitch count” he said. Ohtani was asked if he thought it was his top performance in the majors. “It could be,” he said with a smile.13

Maddon said it was the best he’d seen Ohtani pitch.14 He wouldn’t have pulled Ohtani if he had a perfect game, no matter the pitch count.15 Maddon said he could feel Ohtani was determined to change his fortunes against the Astros. “I think he just had enough of Houston giving him a hard time and he wanted to go out there tonight and do something about it, both on the mound and at the plate,” Maddon said.16

The Angels took the series win,17 moving a half-game ahead of the Seattle Mariners for the lead in the AL West18 with the Astros third in the division. By the end of the season the positions were reversed—the Astros won the division and eventually the World Series. The Angels finished third, 33 games back.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin. Thanks to John Fredland for his suggestions.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org and viewed the home and away TV broadcasts on mlb.com.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/HOU/HOU202204200.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2022/B04200HOU2022.htm

Notes

1 Due to the lockout, Opening Day 2022 was delayed from March 31 to April 7. This was the opening home series for the Astros, so the Opening Day logo was still visible on the grass.

2 Stephen Hawkins, “Ohtani Roughed Up in Angels Loss,” Los Angeles Times, April 15, 2022: D6.

3 “Astros Reveal Space-Themed City Connect Uniforms, Team to Debut Them on April 20,” abc13.com, April 11, 2022, https://abc13.com/astros-city-connect-jerseys-merch-minute-maid-park-jersey-for-sale/11736656/.

4 Although it was his 826th career start, he had 30 starts as a designated hitter or first baseman in 2013, 2014, and 2021 (see https://stathead.com/tiny/iQKBL). His final game was two months later, on June 22.

5 Although it would apply to any player, it was commonly referred to as the “Shohei Ohtani rule.” Jack Baer, “MLB Adds Shohei Ohtani Rule to Universal DH,” YahooSports.com, March 22, 2022, https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb-adds-shohei-ohtani-rule-to-universal-dh-223355459.html.

6 He had won the 2021 Silver Slugger Award as a Designated Hitter. The American League, unlike the National League through 2021, did not award a Silver Slugger for the pitcher position. Ohtani also won the 2023 AL MVP Award and the 2023 Silver Slugger as a DH.

7 Richard Dean, “Ohtani Flirts with Perfecto after Making History at Plate,” mlb.com, April 21, 2022, https://www.mlb.com/news/shohei-ohtani-bats-twice-before-throwing-pitch; Kristie Rieken, “Shohei Ohtani Flirts with Perfect Game; Joe Maddon Says He Would’ve Let Him Go for It,” latimes.com, April 21, 2022. https://www.latimes.com/sports/angels/story/2022-04-20/shohei-ohtani-flirts-with-perfect-game-in-angels-shutout-win-over-astros.

8 Both teams’ broadcasters speculated that he might be making history as soon as he batted the second time, but they waited to confirm it until Elias Sports Bureau weighed in. See Rieken, previous note.

9 At least twice in major-league history the hometeam pitcher has batted twice in the bottom of the first inning—Brooklyn’s Chris Van Cuyk on May 21, 1952 (there were 21 at-bats in a 15-run inning) and Cincinnati’s Tom Browning on August 3, 1989 (20 at-bats in a 14-run inning).

10 To avoid sign-stealing, starting in 2022 pitchers and catchers were allowed to use PitchCom, an electronic device to communicate pitch-calling from the catcher’s wrist to a microphone attached to the pitcher’s cap. Anthony Castrovince, “After Successful Spring Training Test Run, Pitch-calling Technology Will Be an Option in Regular Season,” mlb.com, April 5, 2022. https://www.mlb.com/news/pitchcom-approved-for-use-in-2022-regular-season .

11 Velazquez played a few games for the Tampa Bay Rays and Cleveland Indians in 2018 and 2019. He suited up for the Baltimore Orioles in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, followed by a full year with the New York Yankees. The Angels selected him off waivers from the Yankees.

12 The pitchers were right to be concerned—and right to try to pick him off. Ohtani had 26 stolen bases in 2021, fifth in the AL, although he was also caught 10 times—most in the majors. His results were much worse in 2022—11 successfully stolen and caught nine times. (Starting in 2023 the rules on pickoff throws would not have allowed this result—after three ineffective pickoff attempts Ohtani would have been awarded second base.)

13 Kristie Rieken, “‘Virtuoso’ Ohtani Mows Down Astros,” Los Angeles Times, April 21, 2022: B10.

14 Maddon’s evaluation was supported by Ohtani’s Bill James Game Score. His score for this game was 81. He had one higher game score (the previous 12-strikeout game in 2018 was scored 86) but Maddon wasn’t managing the Angels in 2018. Game score is a metric created by Bill James to judge a starting pitcher’s effectiveness. The calculation starts with 50 points. Add one point for each out recorded (or three points per inning), two points for each inning completed after the fourth, and one point for each strikeout. Subtract two points for each hit allowed, four points for each earned run allowed, two points for each unearned run allowed, and one point for each walk. BR Bullpen, “Game Score,” Baseball-Reference.com, accessed December 14, 2023, https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Game_Score.

15 A week earlier, Dave Roberts pulled Clayton Kershaw from a perfect game after the seventh inning. Brian Hall, “Kershaw Agrees With Decision to Pull Him after 7 perfect innings,” mlb.com, April 13, 2022. https://www.mlb.com/news/clayton-kershaw-removed-from-perfect-game.

16 Rieken, “‘Virtuoso’ Ohtani Mows Down Astros.”

17 The Astros took the season series from the Angels, 13-6.

18 The Angels were tied for the division lead as late as May 15 but hit a skid in June, leading to a managerial change to Phil Nevin. They still finished third in the division at 73-89.