Shohei Ohtani impresses with bat, arm

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Shohei Ohtani hit a 451-foot homer and pitched two-hit ball into the fifth inning in a historic two-way performance, and Jared Walsh hit a walk-off three-run homer in the ninth inning in the Los Angeles Angels’ 7-4 win over the Chicago White Sox on Sunday night.

Walsh hit two homers, including a big three-run shot off Matt Foster to end the Angels’ third win over Chicago in their season-opening four-game series.

Ohtani reached another milestone in his unique career when he took the mound and occupied the No. 2 slot in the batting order for the Angels. It was the first time he pitched and hit in the same game since entering MLB. He was only the third pitcher in 45 seasons to hit for himself in a game with the designated hitter available and the first to bat second since Jack Dunleavy did it for the Cardinals in 1903.

In the first inning alone, Ohtani threw the hardest pitch by any starting pitcher in baseball this season and produced the hardest hit by any batter this season. Ohtani threw a 100.6-mph fastball (he later hit 101.1), and his first-pitch homer off Chicago’s Dylan Cease left his bat at 115 mph.

Even Ohtani’s 109.7-mph lineout to center in the second inning was hit harder than any other ball in the game except his own homer.

"He’s everything we thought he could be, right?" Angels manager Joe Maddon said. "That’s the complete baseball player. He just needed the opportunity to do it . . . What he did tonight was pretty special, and you’re going to see a lot more of that.’’

Chicago’s Leury Garcia put it more succinctly: "Oh, he nasty."

Ohtani didn’t allow a run through the first four innings, but his control problems abetted Chicago’s three-run rally in the fifth. Ohtani left after a sequence in which catcher Max Stassi’s passed ball on a strikeout and subsequent throwing error allowed two runs to score and led to a scary collision at the plate between Ohtani and Jose Abreu, who undercut him while sliding home to score the tying run.

Ohtani left the game with general soreness but no injury, general manager Perry Minasian said. "I feel fine as of now," said Ohtani, who struck out seven and walked five. "It wasn’t as bad as it looked."

Ohtani even mastered Yermin Mercedes, the 28-year-old White Sox rookie who had gotten his first eight major-league hits in his first eight at-bats earlier in the series. Ohtani struck out Mercedes in the second and fourth, dropping his average all the way down to .727, before Mercedes beat out an infield single.