OAKLAND, Calif. — A traffic jam kept Shohei Ohtani from making it to the ballpark in time for his regular pregame pitching routine, and he was scratched from his scheduled start Thursday night against the Oakland Athletics and shifted to designated hitter.
Because of an accident on the Bay Bridge that snarled traffic for one of the Angels’ many buses, Ohtani wound up on Bay Area Rapid Transit — BART— and he then faced a delay transferring trains and got further behind. He wound up arriving at the Oakland Coliseum closer to 5 p.m., about an hour after his ideal time to get ready to take the mound.
Manager Joe Maddon went with well-rested lefty Patrick Sanodval on the mound in place of Ohtani, who was in the lineup batting second against the A’s.
Ohtani (1-0, 2.37 ERA) was rescheduled to start Friday night.
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
