ANAHEIM, Calif. — A night after hitting his 26th homer of the season against Dylan Cease in a 2-1 Angels victory, Angels two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani took his 6-3 record and 3.13 ERA to the pitcher’s mound against the Sox Tuesday night.
“There’s no one who has ever been like him,” Cease said Wednesday. “He’s extremely talented, obviously. He’s a once in a lifetime player.”
In two career games and 10 1⁄3 innings against the Sox, Ohtani is 1-0 with a 0.87 ERA. He beat the Sox in his last start against them at Angel last June 29, pitching 5 2⁄3 scoreless innings with 11 strikeouts.
“He’s one of the best talents in baseball, if not the best,” Sox manager Pedro Grifol said Tuesday. “You make a mistake, he’s going to make you pay for it. That’s the type of talent we’re dealing with. We have to make sure we make good pitches and today we have to make sure we take good pitches.”
Hendriks to play catch Wednesday
Closer Liam Hendriks is slated to play catch Wednesday for the first time since going on the injured list June 11 with elbow inflammation, but there is still no timeline for his return.
“We have purposely not had a timeline. It’s take it day by day, I start throwing [Wednesday]. Depending on how that goes we move to the next day.”
Hendriks made five appearances after coming back from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Hendriks said the elbow has responded well to exercises, treatment and Pylo ball work but he’ll get a better feel after he throws a baseball.
“There’s no end date as of yet,” he said. “It’s just take it step by step. If I respond well, we can move that forward. If it responds OK, we have an idea. And if it doesn’t respond well, we take a little extra time.”
Hendriks’ high motor usually pushes him at top speed, whether he’s throwing a bullpen or working through soreness. But in this case, he said he’s making sure not to overdo it.
“After something similar [forearm flexor strain] last year, we definitely rushed back last year and I want to make sure this is done right because the alternatives aren’t great,” he said.
Eloy returns to the outfield
Eloy Jimenez played right field for the first time since coming off the injured list. Andrew Vaughn was the designated hitter.
“He’s been cleared to do that,” Grifol said. “And at the same time, I need that DH spot to give guys a little bit of a break as well. Vaughn needs a break [from playing first base] as well.”
A long ways to go
The Sox were 34-46 going into Tuesday, having lost 10 of their last 15 games. The bright side? Sox pitchers led the major leagues with a 3.10 ERA in June, giving the Sox “a chance to win every single night,” Grifol said.
But they were last with 3.23 runs scored a game and 29th in average (.212).
“We’ve done some good things, however we’ve got to get better at a lot of things,” Grifol said. “Game management part needs to improve a little bit. We need to control the running game a little better.”
All 22 June games were decided by four or fewer runs, including 11 by one run.
“We’ve got to start putting up some crooked numbers,” Grifol said.
“We have to control the strike zone,” assistant hitting coach Chris Johnson said. “When this team swings at strikes we’re a really good hitting ballclub. After that, yes, then you start to talk about getting the ball in the air. Ground balls at this level are outs. And with guys on base, a lot of times they’re two outs. Just focus on getting a good pitch to hit and driving it in the air. “