After following his first pitching win in the big leagues by homering in back-to-back games, the Los Angeles Angels' Shohei Ohtani said Wednesday it was "too good to be true."

Having arrived in America with more fanfare than any Japanese import to date, the 23-year-old Ohtani performed poorly in spring exhibition games and his performance was roasted in the U.S. media. But after his stellar start to the season, Ohtani was asked if he had anything to say to his critics.

"Nothing in particular," he said after the Angels' 3-2 extra-inning victory on Wednesday. "The season has just begun and it could easily be the case that from my next game I stop hitting. People evaluate your results and that's the way it is."

"Right now, I'm really in good form. It's kind of too good to be true."

Former superstar Alex Rodriguez speaking on Fox Sports heaped on the praise Wednesday.

"He (Ohtani) is making a mockery of the greatest league in the world," A-Rod said. "Someone has to tell him he's not in Newport High School. He's making the league look like high school."

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Having hit a three-run homer in his first at-bat at Angels Stadium on Tuesday and finished that game 3-for-4, Ohtani struck out in his first at-bat on Wednesday against 2017 American League Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber. During that at-bat he looked at a fat first-pitch fastball and was rung up on a pitch outside the zone.

In the fifth inning with two outs, a runner on second, Kluber got to a 1-1 count with two of his trademark cutters and Ohtani was looking for another one.

"I had studied his data and saw he rarely misses. As I expected, he is an elite pitcher, and I did not go to the plate full of conviction," Ohtani said of his game-tying home run. "A single would be a good (to get in a run), so I just tried to keep my swing compact."

"Actually I thought the previous pitch was also a mistake but I fouled it off and I thought that was my best chance, but I got lucky and the next one was perfect for me."

Although no one expects Ohtani to keep up his current levels of performance -- he is 6-for-14 -- mlb.com's analytics rate Ohtani among the majors' elite in three categories: fastball velocity, batted-ball velocity off his bat and foot speed to first base.

And that comes despite trained observers dismissing his credentials based on poor swings and pitches in his first spring training.

"He's basically like a high school hitter because he's never seen a good curveball," one major league scout told Yahoo Sports' Jeff Passan, who told Kyodo News he would not have published those words if that had not been the consensus of a number of scouts he'd spoken to.

Critics, including mlb.com's Ron Darling, said prior to Opening Day that Ohtani did not yet belong in the majors and suggested the Angels may have quietly promised him a big league roster spot in order to sign the slugging pitcher.

Yet, in one way, Ohtani has proved he is ready, and that has nothing to do with how well he plays.

Although Ohtani is labeled a rookie by Major League Baseball's rules, he spent five years as a pro in Nippon Professional Baseball. His attempts to both hit and pitch were criticized in Japan as well, and he learned that like pitching and hitting, criticism comes with the game.