Shohei Ohtani’s Dominant Strikeout Surge Shattered by Shocking Late Collapse in Spring Finale—What Went Wrong?
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While working as a full-time hitter for Japan, he was stretching out with bullpen sessions and simulated games on the side. That’s how he got up to 61 pitches in his first spring training start last week, while throwing as hard as 99.9 mph.
The Dodgers were clearly interested in stretching him out even further on Tuesday. He was sitting at 79 pitches after four dominant innings, but the team still sent him back out there.
It was evident he was feeling some fatigue at that point. He averaged 98.4 mph with his four-seam fastball in his first start, but had ticked down to 96.5 mph across Tuesday. And the three fastballs he threw in the fifth inning: 94.2 mph, 93.4 mph and 93.5 mph. The latter two pitches were both sinkers, but those numbers were also more than a tick down from the rest of his spring training sinkers.


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