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OC Register: Angels shuffle rotation, with Shohei Ohtani starting Game 1 of Thursday doubleheader


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DETROIT — A few days after the Angels shuffled their rotation, the weather caused them to shuffle it back.

After the Angels’ game against the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday was rained out and rescheduled as part of a doubleheader on Thursday, Manager Phil Nevin said Shohei Ohtani will start Game 1, at 10:10 a.m. PT, and Patrick Sandoval will start Game 2, which will start 40 minutes later.

Chase Silseth, who had been scheduled to work on Thursday, will now start on Friday in Toronto.

Ohtani’s normal turn falls on Thursday, but over the weekend the Angels announced that they were pushing him back to Friday in Toronto, because that avoided him pitching two straight games in hot, humid conditions in Detroit, and next week in Atlanta.

However, once Thursday’s game became a doubleheader, Nevin said they determined that it would be difficult for Ohtani to hit in two games and then travel the night before he pitched in Toronto.

“As we sat down and talked about it, it was too much,” Nevin said, adding that it “kind of started as his idea.”

Nevin conceded that it would have been nice to have Ohtani start against the Blue Jays, who are currently holding the third wild card spot, but ultimately this was the arrangement that was most likely to yield a good performance by Ohtani.

“The first reaction is it’s the Blue Jays and we want you to pitch against Toronto, but all these games are important,” Nevin said. “We need the best Shohei Ohtani we can get and we just felt this was it. Sitting down with him, he knows his body better than anybody. Takes better care of himself than anybody. Just walking through it, we felt like he would be the freshest to pitch tomorrow’s game vs. Friday’s game.”

The ripple effect of the rainout is that the Angels will need a starter for Tuesday’s game in Atlanta. Next Wednesday’s series finale in Atlanta – the day game – could be Ohtani or Sandoval, with the other pitching the first game of the homestand against the Seattle Mariners.

“As always, it revolves around what’s best for Shohei, because of who he is and what he does on an everyday basis for us,” Nevin said.

Ohtani has struggled on the mound lately, at least partially because of issues with a cracked nail and a blister, which is another reason the extra day could have been beneficial.

Ohtani, however, said neither the fingernail nor the blister was an issue during his most recent outing, when he gave up five runs in 6⅓ innings of a victory against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

DRURY UPDATE

Second baseman Brandon Drury took batting practice on the field early Wednesday afternoon, before the rain started.

Drury did not face a pitcher, but catching coach Drew Butera threw what Nevin described as “a little bit more than a regular batting practice session. Drew can put a little more on it and spin the ball a little bit.”

Nevin said Drury will need “another day or two of this before he sees real pitching.” The Angels are still weighing whether he’ll need to go to the minor leagues to get any at-bats.

Drury has been out for a month with left shoulder inflammation.

“Really encouraged by what we saw today,” Nevin said. “He’s not quite letting it go completely. But there were balls leaving the park. He was hitting balls to all fields. The next step is to see live pitching. And I’ve got to see him swing and miss a time or two, because that’s going to put the most strain on his shoulder. Overall he felt great. He feels like he can let it go, but we need a couple more days of him doing that.”

TROUT UPDATE

Mike Trout, who is rehabbing from surgery to remove a fractured hamate bone from his left hand, spent about 20 minutes holding a fungo bat, and he took some light dry swings, Nevin said.

Nevin said Trout had a pad in his batting glove.

“Amazingly, he said ‘Wow I feel really good,’” Nevin said. “He said he can feel something there if he goes to swing right now. But he knows it’s a pain tolerance thing. He also wants to get back here. He said he felt great just handling the bat.”

Nevin said they’ll have Trout keep doing that, moving forward to hitting off a tee as soon as he is ready.

“As soon as he can start hitting, we’ll get him as much as he can tolerate as close as we can to a game before we get him in there,” Nevin said.

NOTES

Shortstop Zach Neto (lower back stiffness) was scheduled to be in the lineup if the Angels had played on Wednesday. Now, he will play the second game on Thursday. Nevin said he didn’t want to have him play two games in one day when he was fresh off an injury. He could come in late in the first game. …

Rules allow both teams to add a “27th man” for just the second game of Thursday’s doubleheader because it was scheduled the day before. When a doubleheader is scheduled further in advance, the extra player is active for both games. The logic is that when a game is on such short notice, it could be an unfair disadvantage for one team if its minor league affiliates are farther away. …

After Silseth starts the opener in Toronto on Friday, Reid Detmers and Tyler Anderson will pitch the Saturday and Sunday games.

UP NEXT

Angels (RHP Shohei Ohtani, 8-5, 3.71 ERA; LHP Patrick Sandoval, 5-7, 4.16 ERA) at Tigers (TBD), Thursday, 10:10 a.m., second game begins 40 minutes after conclusion of the first game, Bally Sports West, 830 AM

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