Shohei Ohtani made his much-awaited home Angels debut as a pitcher on Sunday, April 8th, 2018, and did not disappoint.

Shohei Ohtani got off to an excellent start in Sunday’s game featuring the Oakland A’s and Los Angeles Angels by striking out the first three batters he faced in his home pitching debut. From then on, Ohtani never looked back, mowing down Athletic after Athletic.

Shohei Ohtani faced 19 batters to start the game and retired each and every one of them. After getting the 19th batter, Matt Joyce, to line out in the top of the 7th inning, Ohtani gave up a sharp line drive base hit down the left field line to A’s shortstop Marcus Semien. Ohtani then issued a 4-pitch walk to Jed Lowrie, putting runners on first and second. The threat was neutralized after Ohtani got slugger Khris Davis on a weak groundout and striking out Matt Olsen with runners on second and third.

Matt Olsen was Shohei Ohtani’s 12th and final strikeout of the day.

After keeping the Athletics off the board, Ohtani exited at the conclusion of 7 masterful innings. Shohei yielded just one hit and one walk with 12 strikeouts on 91 pitches. Shohei left the game with the Angels beating the A’s 6-0.

Shohei Ohtani now has a 2.08 ERA through his first two career starts for the Angels.

As far as scoring goes, the game was especially lopsided in the Angels’ favor, with scoring starting in the first with Albert Pujols who doubled to left to bring Trout in from first base. Kole Calhoun then singled to bring Albert Pujols in from second to put the Angels up 2-0. Mike Trout brought the score to 3-0 in the bottom of the 3rd when he hit a 425 ft home run to a dead center field.

The Angels continued their scoring in the bottom of the 4th inning when Mike Trout singled to right to score Ryan Schimpf from second. Justin Upton made the score 5-0 after a sacrifice fly brought in Zack Cozart, and the Halos’ scoring would end in the 6th inning after a solo home run to right center from Ryan Schimpf.

Matt Joyce accounted for the A’s’ only run with a 390 ft home run in the 9th inning.

The Angels routed the A’s 6-1 to win the series 2 games to 1.

The Los Angeles Angels have now won their third consecutive series to open the 2018 season, making it just the third time in Angels’ franchise history that the Halos have opened a season with 3 consecutive series wins and the first time since 1987. The Angels now have a record of 7-3, placing them second in the American League West behind the 8-2 Houston Astros.

Shohei Ohtani has now hit 3 home runs in his last 3 games as a Designated Hitter and won 2 games in his last 2 starting outings. If Shohei Ohtani does not win the American League Player of the Week, there will be a riot in the streets of Anaheim.