Shohei Ohtani shines on the mound as Angels beat Nationals

Shohei Ohtani has continued to remind opposing teams why he is the Angels ace.

Forget that his pitching entrance song, “Dead Man Walking” by WAR*HALL has a line in it that says “I’ll take every soul I can into the night” with a sinister beat laid under the track.

An ever evolving pitcher even throughout the course of a single game, it does not take Ohtani long to adjust himself when he’s on a mound so he can cruise through a game.

Take, for example, his start on Tuesday against the Washington Nationals, whom he collected his second win of the season on the Angels 2-0 rout of their national league opponent.

He walked Alex Call to start his outing, one of five total batters walked over seven innings and he threw a pitch that just grazed another batter. But he also struck out six and held the Nats to just one hit.

“He kind of feels himself out through the game as far as what’s working, what’s not,” manager Phil Nevin said before the game. “We always go in with a plan but there’s some times where he goes off script a little bit on his own. And he’s usually on point with his scouting reports.

“Trust him with the way he prepares for the game to get ready.”

Walking the first batter of a game is no big deal for Ohtani. He’s walked the first batter of each of his three starts so far. The games were all still his to control.

The one hit that Ohtani gave up on Tuesday was a two-out double on a sharp ground ball hit by CJ Abrams, which quickly made its way to the corner of the right field grass. A runner, Keibert Ruiz, was able to move into scoring position on the play.

That was as far as Ruiz would get. Ohtani got the next batter to ground out.

In Seattle on April 5, his adjustment in game revolved around timing of when he was pitching to batters. He was issued a pitch clock violation early in that game because he was pitching before the batter was actually ready.

Angels’ Shohei Ohtani singles during the fourth inning against the Washington Nationals at Angel Stadium on Tuesday.

(Ashley Landis / Associated Press)

He had a lengthy conversation with the umpires in between innings to fully understand what he was doing that violated the rule.

Ohtani finished that game giving up one earned run on three hits, four walks, two batters hit and eight struck out.

On Tuesday, he experienced no such issue. Adjustment made.

“He wasn’t doing anything wrong,” Nevin reiterated before Tuesday’s game. “It’s just like I said, they can’t see that hand come in [his glove] sometimes and it looks like he’s set and he’s not.

“That’s what I was trying to explain to him [in Seattle], but he also has to wait for the hitter just like any other pitcher and it’s an adjustment process for everybody.”

And Ohtani capped his evening by setting a new Angels record: 10 consecutive pitching starts dating back to last season in which he gave up two or fewer runs.

Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan had a nine game streak between the 1972-73 seasons.

Backing up Ohtani’s outing was rookie Logan O’Hoppe, who hit his team-leading fourth home run of the season, a new Angels rookie record, in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Anthony Rendon helped bring in the first run of the game in the fourth inning. His sacrifice fly with the bases loaded, allowed Taylor Ward to score.

Jose Quijada pitched a clean eighth inning and Carlos Estévez closed out the game, securing the win for the Angels.