Shohei Ohtani showed off his plate discipline as he reached base twice and doubled for the Los Angeles Angels in Friday's 8-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.
"Since we lost, there are lots of places where I think I could have done just a little bit more," said Ohtani, who went 1-for-3 with a walk. "I felt most of my at-bats had a lot of good points to them, so that's something for me to take away from this as I go forward."
With the Angels' offense struggling, the club fell to its fourth straight loss, although Ohtani gave them a chance to tie the game early against Blake Snell (5-3) with a second-inning leadoff double.
Ohtani admitted being anxious before the game about facing the lefty, who throws close to 100 miles per hour (160.9 kilometers per hour).
"I was wondering how I might handle him. When I got in there I felt he was really fast," Ohtani said after a 97 mph (156 kph) first pitch fastball outside that was called a strike and was followed by two sliders and a curve.
"I wanted to hone my timing, so I let those go."
The 23-year-old Japanese worked the count full before driving a high fastball to the center field wall for his fifth double, but he died on third base.
"I did a good job on a number of pitches, so I'm pretty pleased," said Ohtani, whose double left his bat at at 110 mph (177 kph), the highest speed recorded during the game.
With the Rays leading 4-0 in the fourth, Ohtani drew a one-out walk but was again stranded. He was fooled on an 0-1 curveball and grounded out into an easy out in the sixth, and ended his night by striking out in the eighth, getting tricked by a couple of pitches low out of the zone.
Although Ohtani is batting .348 against right-handers, the left-handed slugger is now batting .222 against southpaws.
"I've had fewer plate appearances (against lefties) so I've had proportionally fewer points of reference to work with," Ohtani said. "But in terms of how I'm hitting the ball compared to righties, I don't think it's much worse."
Ohtani is slated to have Saturday's game off ahead of his scheduled start on the mound in Sunday's series finale.
