As a pitcher, Ohtani’s Splitter makes him particularly difficult to hit. Only one starter in a current major league roster, San Francisco Giants All-Star Kevin Gausman, throws that place more often than Ohtani, who uses it 18.6 percent of the time, according to Fangraphs. He aggressively pitches the splinter and puts it on the same level as his elite fastball.
“The splinter is the biggest,” said Olson, who is 8-0 with five strikeouts against Ohtani. “He’s got the fastball in the upper 90s with a lot of drive, but to have the splinter coming straight off and the drive going high it goes halfway and you have to decide which way to go. In combination with that, he only has a fluid, fast movement. ”
As a hitter, Ohtani has so much power and swings so hard that he doesn’t have to hit a ball directly to cause damage. There are few safe zones for jugs.
“If you look at his hard hit ball scatter plot, he has them up and down, up and in, down and away, down and in, from speed to maybe more moving pitches,” said Cole. who faced Ohtani 12 times, allowing three hits and a step. “It just forces you to adapt and perform at the same time, which is one of the hardest things to do. ”
Olson doesn’t have to serve and Cole rarely hits. As a two-way player, Ohtani takes on all the challenges they describe – “He’s facing himself on both sides of the ball,” as Dodger pitcher Walker Buehler put it – and in Denver he’ll do anything plus the home run derby.
The body and mind can only take a limited amount, but Ohtani is a showman with a sense of duty.
“I expect to be pretty tired and exhausted after these two days,” he said on Monday through an interpreter. “But there are a lot of people who want to see it and I want to make these guys happy, so I’ll do that. ”
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