Shohei Ohtani homered for the second consecutive night and recorded his first stolen base of the coronavirus-delayed season in the Los Angeles Angels' 8-5 loss to the Seattle Mariners on Thursday.
Ohtani went 1-for-4 and cut the Mariners' lead to three runs with his three-homer off Dan Altavilla in the bottom of the ninth inning, but that was where the Angels' offense stopped.
The Mariners scored five runs in the top half, allowing them to hold off the Angels despite a late push from the Japanese two-way player, who pitched in a major league game for the first time in nearly two years on Sunday.
Ohtani reached on a fielder's choice in the seventh inning, then promptly stole second. He struck out swinging and lined out in his first two at-bats.
"I'm gradually getting a feel for hitting, but it seems pretty good so far," said Ohtani, who most recently homered in back-to-back games on June 13 last year, when he became the first Japanese player to hit for the cycle in the majors.
Ohtani's bomb Thursday came off a fastball clocked at 159 kilometers (98.5 miles) per hour, making it the fastest pitch the left-handed batter has hit for a home run, according to MLB's analytics tool Statcast.
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