OC Register: Shohei Ohtani officially slated to return to Angels rotation on Wednesday

[AngelsWin.com]

DETROIT — Shohei Ohtani will return to the mound on Wednesday, with nine days rest since his last start.

“Body-wise, I can’t really tell at this point if I needed those two or three days, but I was able to hit an extra couple games because of those two or three days, so in that way it worked out,” Ohtani said through his interpreter on Tuesday, after the Angels officially announced his return to the rotation.

Ohtani pitched against the Tampa Bay Rays on May 20, his third straight outing on a Sunday. Instead of having him pitch last Sunday in New York, the Angels pushed him back a couple days, citing “workload management.”

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The Angels are trying to manage a player who is playing a virtually unprecedented role, as a hitter and pitcher. Although they have his history in Japan for a roadmap as to how to handle him, in some ways this is all an experiment.

“This whole program, we won’t have a report card until the season is over,” Manager Mike Scioscia said.

With the season at its one-third point, Ohtani is hitting .291 with six homers and 20 RBIs. He has a .929 OPS. As a pitcher, he is 4-1 with a 3.35 ERA and 52 strikeouts in 40-1/3 innings.

Ohtani is on a pace to reach double figures in victories and homers, a feat not achieved since Babe Ruth did it in 1918.

“I think everything is going well so far,” Ohtani said. “No injuries at all. The body feels great. The performance is somewhat there, so I’m satisfied so far. … Everything has been really tough so far. I still have a lot of hurdles to overcome. I just need to work hard every day to be able to overcome those hurdles, so I’ll keep going forward.”

ALSO

Justin Upton was presented with an award from the Detroit media as the Tigers player of the year for 2017. Upton hit .279 with 28 homers in five months with the Tigers before they traded him to the Angels on Aug. 31. …

Albert Pujols had his 1,945th RBI in Monday’s game, which passed Ty Cobb for eighth on the all-time list.

UP NEXT

Angels (Shohei Ohtani, 4-1, 3.35) at Tigers (Mike Fiers, 4-3, 4.78), Wednesday, 4 p.m., Fox Sports West, KLAA (830 AM)

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