Shohei Ohtani struggles with his catcher, a breakdown

in the first inning of this game, Otani

started off. He fielded his own pitch.

He threw it 100 miles per hour. He got

the easy out. The next batter, the

outfielder, oh, gets stuck for a little

bit. Comes in, makes the play. Otani's

like, "What are you?" Oh, okay. You just

being cute, huh? I'll be cute, too.

Tongue out. having fun, laughing, good

vibes all around. Two outs in the first

and then we get that which I don't know

if that's a crossup or just the four

seam ran. There's no one on base so

rushing doesn't care but it's of note.

And the very next pitch we get one that

Otani wants. He's like, "Can we

challenge?" No. He's like, "You sure?

Really, dude?" Okay, if you say so. But

I'm pretty sure that's a strike. He's

shaking his head. He's like, "No." Okay.

All right.

All right. Nope. Don't want to throw

that. Don't want to throw that. 20 pitch

goes with a breaking ball. Rushing says

it's okay. And he's like, "Not really,

cuz now we're 3 0 and could have had

that strike." And then it's ball four

and it's a four pitch walk. Oh, Tonnie

not happy about it. Catches that ball

with vigor.

Still thinking about it. Nope. Nope.

Don't like it, but it's all right. Next

batter, fast ball right down the middle.

Fast ball down the middle. Caught. We're

out of the inning. But look at the way

he's wearing his his hat. He's

disheveled. And then in the top of the

second inning, the last out is made by

Rushing. Three high fast balls, three

swings and misses. So maybe that goes

into his head space. In the second

inning, it kind of all comes to a head

where it's just a lot of communication.

It just strenuous communication. First,

another breaking ball. Curveball that

just kind of slips. Fast ball right down

the middle. That's not going to do it.

That's a base hit. That's the nice

pitch. He's got that sweeper down. And

that's pretty nice, too. Otani can

really pinch, huh? The O2. Another

sweeper. All right, there we go. Look at

that. Got the curve grip, but kind of

releases it from the side. We're happy.

We're in good spirits. One out, one on.

No, I don't want to throw that. I want

to throw this. The splitter to lefties.

Really nice splitter. Really nice fast

ball. Sequencing again. The splitter

inside doesn't work. Back to the fast

ball. We go on the outside. It's too far

away. We go with the splitter. It's up

top. Nice piece of hitting. That killed

about a thousand worms, but it's a

single. Unless Mookie can tag him out at

second. Oh, never mind. We're just

playing. It's jokes. Look at the fingers

split. Usually you want to throw a

splitter low. That's a high splitter.

And he's able to get his bat to it. And

you know what Otani says? He says,

"Let's go back to that pitch." Right

away, next batter, same pitch, gets the

strike. And then he says, "Splitter

again." And this time, another piece of

good hitting by the Twins. Another

single. Now the bases are loaded. And

Otani's like in it. And this is, see all

those head nods? I don't know what

they're communicating here. I would

guess it's something about the pitch

calling, but it's like a headshake and

the headshake and then a third like,

"Yes, dude." See? Yes. Yes. Yes, dude.

And when you cut back to rushing, he's

nodding his head. Yes. But then we get a

very scary cross up. It costs them a

run. It's a pass ball. It's 102 miles

per hour. And the body language and the

looks here, they're just no one's happy.

Why would you be? Don Rushing looks at

him like, dude, looks back at the dugout

like, did he just fram me? That was

scary. I I didn't call for a fast ball.

He threw his second hardest pitch of the

season. That's scary. Wasn't expecting

it. Otani's like, "You should have been

expecting it. I gave you three emphatic

head nods. We were on the same page."

They weren't on the same page. Goes

looks at the duck. What the [ __ ] What

was that? Getting crossed up as a

catcher is very scary. One time I was

catching my buddy in uh freshman year of

high school. He threw 80 mph and he

crossed me up in warm-ups, hit me right

in the face mask, fell down like the

scene in three ninjas when the guy farts

in the batters box and everyone faints.

It was scary. Hit me right in the And

I'm not. That was 80 miles per hour.

This is 102. So I understand why Daltton

Rushing is like whoa like a little

scared there. It's kind of like when a

batter gets up and in at his face, but

you probably shouldn't show up Otani and

but they're showing each other up.

They're just having a tough time

communicating. So they go and have a

mound visit and obviously I can't see

what Rushing is saying but he's getting

wideeyed and then it looks like and

Otani English isn't his first language

so this is just guess speculation

whatever you want to call it but it

looks to me like he says last time here

last time

like last time and rushing is like what

do you mean he's like the last one? Last

one. Could be wrong. That's what it

looks like to me. And Rushian's like,

"The last one? What are you talking

about?" So, fast ball. I said fast ball.

He's like, "Okay, yeah, but that's not

what Okay, fast ball. All right, we're

good." He's like, "Okay, yep. Okay,

we're good. We got it. We're good.

Everything's going to be great from here

on out." Rushing's like this. I'm in a

blender. What's happening? The very next

pitch, they go to the sweeper and he's

got that. It's looking nice. That's a

great pitch. Let's throw that one again.

And that's tap tap tap. Come on, dude.

Rush like, "No, it's low." Look how

emphatic this is. He's like, "I'm not

letting you not tap. Tap tap tap tap

tap." Rushing's like, "No, it's low. No,

no, no, no, no, no." But the umpire is

like, "Um, you tapped." Yeah, he t you

tapped. Okay. Yeah, pitcher tapped.

Let's go to review, which is great

because now we get to see and Otani's

like, "See, dude, told you we're good.

Don't even worry about it. Don't

overthink it." You know, it was a

fraction of an inch. But the very next

pitch, we're on different pages again.

Calls the pitch. Look, Rushing calls the

pitch and kind of nods his head like,

"Yeah." And no time's like, "No, no."

Yes, that one. Okay. So, it's just a

struggle. And that pitch maybe what

rushing wanted was better. It's a fast

ball. It gets hit. Two-run score on the

play. And then they do get the out at

second because they rope a doped them.

Look, I'm going home. Oh no, I dropped

the ball. You should take second. Oh,

you're out. Obviously, not on purpose,

but a good play. There's two outs now.

Three runs have scored. Let's just end

the inning. Little get me over

curveball. Finally lands it. 0 and one

pitch. They go with the slider. It's

below the zone. It's a nice pitch. 1-1

fast ball inside. Now, this is another

little piece of communication that just

is weird. Otani does this signal. It

could just be like telling himself

something like go through the ball. But

rushing sees it and he and he thinks,

"Oh, do you want a new ball? You telling

me to get a new ball?" And then Otani

says to him, "No, dude. We're good." And

then Rushing says, "Okay, great. Thumbs

up." And then Otani says something to

him. I don't know what that is.

I don't know what that I don't know what

he says there, but just like if

anything, my takeaway is the

communication between the two is

strenuous for both of them. Even if

there there's no ill intentions, I don't

think there's ill intentions, but it

just seems like a strenuous

communication situation. And this is

only the first two innings. Eventually,

they do get out of it because that

sweeper is nasty the entire time. I

wonder if he leaned on it the rest of

the game. Otani walks off and then you

have rushing in the dugout getting

talked to by a lot. Freeman puts all the

equipment to the side. He sits next to

him. He's like, "Hey, man." I don't know

what he's saying. Probably just saying

like nice stuff and you know, just

trying not to show up the pitcher. Maybe

he says that. Maybe he doesn't even say

that. Maybe he's like, "You're good."

You know, maybe this is just like, you

know, put it behind you. We're all good.

Then his manager comes over. He throws

an arm around him. He's giving him some

love, some care. And then rushing beats

himself up because he's like, "I don't

deserve all this love and attention. I

don't deserve this niceness. I'm a grown

man." So, he just punches himself in the

head a bunch to balance it all out. And

then in his postgame press conference,

he says, "And that's embarrassing, too,

because I don't I don't need help. I'm a

grown man."

>> I mean, they they always have my back.

Um

uh once again, it's embarrassing that I

need support like that. I'm a grown man.

>> And I I know there's little kids that

listen to this. I feel bad that that's

the mindset that rushing has grown up

and that's where he's stuck. Uh being a

good teammate

is is good

and getting getting, you know,

getting some conversations from your

teammates and managers. That's also

good. It's good to be able to receive

that and give that. And it sucks that

however rushing whoever put that in his

head that it's a sign of badness means

he's probably not going and offering

help to his teammates because he thinks

they're grown men. They don't need that.

So if you're a young boy, young girl, I

I hope this hope no one's teaching you

this mindset.

Go talk to your teammates when they're

feeling down.

That should be easy. That should be

normal. So that's that. Just a lot of

miscommunication.

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