The Los Angeles Angels decided not to trade Shohei Ohtani at the deadline, believing they still had a shot at making the playoffs. But a recent seven-game losing skid further hurt the team's chances of defying the odds of ending its postseason drought this year. Even a mini-win streak during back-to-back wins against the San Francisco Giants isn't enough to move the needle much.
“I know it's not extremely high right now,” Ohtani admitted after leading the Angels to a 4-1 win over the Giants Wednesday night at home (h/T Sam Blum of The Athletic). “But there's obviously a possibility there. We're trying our best every game, we're trying to get some wins. And we've got 2 in a row right now.”
Shohei Ohtani and the Halos are back to .500 with a 58-58 record after defeating the Giants anew. However, they are still over 10 games behind the Texas Rangers for the top spot in the American League West division. It did not help the Angels that the Houston Astros also won on Wednesday against the Baltimore Orioles. As for their chances to win even just a wild card ticket in the AL, it's also not looking so great at the moment, as the Angels are behind by seven games in that race.
In their latest win over San Francisco, Ohtani pitched for six innings with zero earned runs on three hits while punching out five Giants batters. He also went 0-for-2 with two walks and a run. There's only so much Ohtani can do to help the Angels, but he can't afford to stop trying.