Shohei Ohtani scratched from start, not because of an injury but transportation issues

Baseball fans know how important Shohei Ohtani is to the game right now, pitching and hitting at a level that hasn't been seen since Babe Ruth. 

So when he was scratched from his scheduled start on the mound Thursday night against the Oakland A's, alarm bells started going off.

It shouldn't come as a surprise, considering how much concern there was when Ohtani's velocity dipped several mph below normal in his last start.

Was he injured? Is the stress of hitting every day and pitching every sixth finally starting to take its toll?

Turns out, there was a far less disastrous explanation.

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.

Angels manager Joe Maddon told reporters at his pregame press conference that one of the Angels' team buses was delayed in traffic making the trip from the team hotel in San Francisco across the Bay to Oakland. 

The players and coaches on the bus then had to find an alternate method of transportation, but there was an issue with BART trains as well. 

Through six starts, Shohei Ohtani has struck out 45 batters in 30 1/3 innings. He's also posted a .270/.330/.626 slash line in 191 plate appearances. (Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea, USA TODAY Sports)

As a result, Ohtani didn't have enough time to go through his usual pregame preparations, so he'll get an extra day of rest and take the mound against the A's on Friday. Patrick Sandoval gets the spot start in the opener of the four-game series.

As a pitcher this season, Ohtani has a 1-0 record and 2.37 ERA in six starts. As a hitter, he has a .270 average with 15 home runs — one behind major league leaders Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays and Adolis Garcia of the Texas Rangers.

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