The plan was to have Los Angeles Angels two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani take the mound Thursday on eight days' rest after showing diminished velocity in his last trip to the mound. Instead, that start will be pushed back to Friday. The good news is that Ohtani wasn't bumped because of health or fatigue concerns. Rather, the issue according to the club was one of transportation:
There was an accident on the Bay Bridge, so the #Angels team bus couldn't make it to Oakland. So they had to take the BART but there was an issue there, too. Ohtani didn't have enough time to get ready for his start so it's pushed back to tomorrow.
— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) May 28, 2021
At this point, why not layer on some transit-related intrigue? Why not indeed:
First, wow, what an honor to host a baseball superstar like Shohei Ohtani on BART.
— SFBART (@SFBART) May 28, 2021
We did not experience any issues on our end. We confirmed with Operations Control Center there was no delay for any Coliseum-heading train during the Bay Bridge incident. https://t.co/Ve3E4McdlJ
In any event, the Thursday night start will go to lefty Patrick Sandoval, who presumably did have enough time to get his pre-start work in.
Ohtani as a pitcher in this, his age-26 campaign has pitched to a 2.37 ERA in six starts with 45 strikeouts and 22 walks in 30 1/3 innings. At the plate, he owns a slash line of .269/.326/.632 and is just off the MLB lead with 15 home runs. Because of that historically rare two-way excellence, Ohtani is looking like a strong AL MVP candidate at this semi-early juncture.
