DETROIT — After the Angels declared they would not trade Shohei Ohtani ahead of MLB deadline, the two-way star took a perfect game into the fifth inning and went on to throw a complete game, one-hit shutout in a 6-0 win over the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park in the first game of a doubleheader Thursday.
Tigers designated hitter Kerry Carpenter broke up Ohtani’s shot at perfection with a single in the fifth inning. Minus that hit and the three batters he walked in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, Ohtani dominated the lowly Tigers.
Ohtani pitched into the ninth inning for the first time in his MLB career. He had pitched eight innings five times before Thursday. The last time Ohtani had pitched more than eight innings in a game was when he was still playing professionally in Japan, his last start for the Nippon-Ham Fighters on Oct. 4, 2017, which was also a shutout.
Taylor Ward accounted for half of the Angels’ runs after he hit a two-run blast in the sixth and a solo shot in the eighth.