His bigger problem Friday was his delivery, though, not his stuff. Ohtani
comes from a high three-quarters arm slot that gives him good downhill plane
on his fastball and depth on both breaking pitches. But in Friday's start, he
struggled to get to a consistent release point, losing it completely at the
start of the third inning, when he fell behind the first batter 3-0 and
eventually walked him, then hit the next batter with a fastball that rode way
in to Ohtani's arm side. That in and of itself is not that unusual or
concerning, but if it turns out he regularly has this issue in starts, that
would be a significant problem for him, as it would mean he has ceded the
inside corner to right-handers and seen his breaking balls both start to back
up or hang on him.
This might all sound alarmist, particularly to Angels fans, but it's not.
It's one bad start, and one where he showed a slider that many big league
starters would kill to have on their best days. If I didn't tell you who the
pitcher was, but instead said, "Hey, I saw a 6-foot-4 right-hander throw up
to 95 mph with a 70-grade slider and some feel for a true splitter," you'd
say that sounds like a pretty good big league starter. Ohtani did show he's
mortal, though, and I think this tuneup gave him and the Angels some very
specific points on which to work going forward.