DETROIT — Shohei Ohtani looked his manager in the eye and in just a few words, left no doubt of his intentions.
«I'll finish it,» Los Angeles Angels manager Phil Nevin recalled Ohtani telling him after the eighth inning of what became his first complete game in Major League Baseball. «He wanted it. I could see it, too.»
Ohtani polished off his one-hit shutout of the Detroit Tigers, then continued his extraordinary day in the second game of Thursday's doubleheader, hitting two homers to increase his major league-leading total to 38 before leaving the game with cramps.
The two-way superstar became the first player in major league history to throw a shutout in one half of a doubleheader and hit one homer — much less two — in the other.
Hours before Ohtani delivered the message to his manager, the Angels delivered one of their own.
The franchise, desperate to make the playoffs for the first time since 2014, made a win-now trade to bolster its pitching staff and confirmed that Ohtani will stay for the rest of the season before he becomes a free agent.
«We're going to roll the dice and see what happens,» Angels general manager Perry Minasian told reporters before Ohtani led Los Angeles to a 6-0 win over the Tigers in Game 1 of the doubleheader, just days before MLB's trade deadline.
Ohtani's start was his best in the majors, a one-hitter with eight strikeouts on 111 pitches, including fastballs nearing 100 mph and wicked sliders and splitters that left the Tigers flailing.
In Game 2, Ohtani returned to the designated hitter role. The left-handed hitter hit a two-run homer to left in the second inning and a line drive to right-center in the fourth.
Ohtani became just the fifth player since 1900 to throw a shutout and hit two
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