Shohei Ohtani has terrific numbers against former team

While Shohei Ohtani was available to pinch hit on Thursday, his services weren’t required, as for the second game in a row, the Dodgers secured the win with someone other than the National League back-to-back MVP as its designated hitter. The plan was for some rare time off to potentially help the struggling Ohtani (hitter) find his groove once again, and it so coincided that his return was to come in the series against the Angels over Rivalry Weekend.

Enough has been said about Ohtani squaring off against his former team through the previous series between these two since Ohtani signed with the Dodgers. What’s interesting is that over the course of those games, as if the Angels fans didn’t have enough to complain about—having seen the greatest baseball player in the modern era leave their club—Ohtani has been a menace against Angels pitching, hitting five home runs in just 10 games with a 1.263 OPS, his highest against any team, albeit in a far smaller sample than most. Those five home runs are more than he has hit at Oracle Park or Petco Park, for instance.

Teoscar Hernández and Will Smith were productive in Ohtani’s absence, going three for seven with a home run. So if you want to get funny about it, one might be allowed to claim that the Dodgers superstar two-way player has big shoes to fill, but we wouldn’t go to such lengths for humor. The key is that if his track record against the Angels is anything to go by, Ohtani might be back with a vengeance—he’ll aim to help this team build some momentum after avoiding a series loss at home against the Giants by winning the final two matchups.

Friday’s game info

• Teams: Dodgers at Angels
• Ballpark: Angel Stadium, Anaheim
• Start time: 6:38 p.m. PT
• TV: SportsNet LA
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)