Straight Talk: One-role Ohtani suffers 1st loss, laments bad 5th inning

“Straight Talk" is a regular feature in which The Sporting Tribune’s John E. Gibson offers a full translation of media availability with Dodgers Japanese stars Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki. He will also help translate when Lakers star Rui Hachimura and LA Galaxy captain Maya Yoshida are asked questions in Japanese. 

The job of interpreters in the heat of the moment is difficult without the ability to write down questions and answers and re-hear responses for proper context. That’s where John comes in to help. John currently works as a Japanese-English interpreter and covered pro baseball in Japan for about 20 years. His experience as a sports reporter includes stints at The Orange County Register, The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, The Redlands Daily Facts, The Yomiuri Shimbun’s English newspaper in Tokyo and The Epoch Times.

LOS ANGELES – Right-hander Shohei Ohtani (2-1) tosses six innings and allows a pair of runs (one earned) on five hits and three walks, while fanning nine to record a quality start and lower his ERA to 0.60. But the Dodgers fail to come through at the plate, falling to the Miami Marlins 2-1 at home on Tuesday night.

Q: Shohei, when you look at this outing, just the pitch count getting up a little bit early, did you find that tonight was a bit of a grind for you personally?

Ohtani: Well, the first four innings, I was on a good pace. But as far as how I was feeling, it wasn’t something I would say I was feeling good about. And the way I gave up those runs was bad, but even within that, the good thing was that I was able to hold them to a minimum of runs. But taking everything into account, it probably wasn’t a good outing.

Q: What do you think just kind of led to the stuff not being where you want it to be today?

Ohtani: Things weren’t great for me in the bullpen (before the game). Physically, I wasn’t feeling that bad, but I think it was just something mechanically.

Q: What does pitching but not hitting do to sort of help preserve you for the course of the season? Is that something that you feel like is going to help you sort of be able to last through for the entire year?

Ohtani: Personally, either one is OK – not really OK, but when I’m told to one or the other, I just want to go out and do it. But looking at the team as a total – the season is long and there are probably some players the team wants to try out at DH, and on top of that, for me, it might be a positive to probably have days like this (pitching only) to keep me healthy over the course of a season, but I’m totally leaving that up to the team to decide. So, however I’m used, I just want to make sure I’m prepared to go out and contribute when they tell say go.

Q: The last time that you did this, you talked about the advantage when you’re not able to talk through the last inning and the next inning in the dugout. After that fifth inning, did that help you get back on track, having that time before going back out for the sixth?

Ohtani: That’s not what I was able to do because I was focused on pitching, that’s more about me being bad in the fifth inning and mulling that over. You’re right, the one good thing is that I didn’t continue pitching that way in the sixth and was able to pitch well in the sixth. But putting it simply, I just think the way I started the fifth was poor.

Q: How easy has it been for you to sort of keep the bigger picture, when they’ve approached with days like today where you are pitching and not hitting?

Ohtani: Just like I said before, I’m fine doing it either way (pitching only or playing both ways). But thinking about the team as a whole and the total fatigue on all the players, it’s ideal to have everyone make it all the way through to October with as few injuries as possible. And to make that happen, it’s important to manage things by talking to the trainer and everyone else involved. I understand that’s part of the process, and that’s going to be the decision sometimes. As a player, I just want to focus on what I have to do to go and play each game.

Q: You’ve been swinging the bat well lately, too, what do you think helped you get back on track?

Ohtani: I think I’m on the same kind of pace that I am every year, as I’ve said before. I think it just goes that way sometimes. As far as how I’m feeling, I want to start feeling better as quickly as possible, but if you play in a season, there are always going to be stretches like this. It’s trending toward an early arrival this season, and I guess somewhere inside me I have to consider myself that kind of player and do what I need to do – but I want to progress as quickly as possible, making improvements every day.

Q: This early, is more difficult to manage your swing when you are in a full-time hitting role and doing all the things you need to between starts recovery-wise that goes in, and also things you have to do as a pitcher?

Ohtani: It’s not that difficult to maintain things when you’re in good form, but getting out of bad form and back into good form is – among the things you have to do, I think No. 1 is staying healthy – so thinking about adding pitching to that and all the physical activity that goes along with it, you can’t do all those things in long all-day training sessions. So in the limited time and things you can do, I think trying to make improvements to get back into good form is something I feel is the most difficult thing to do.