Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani will sit out Wednesday’s series finale against the Baltimore Orioles.

Ohtani was warming up on the field on Wednesday to determine if he would be healthy enough to play after missing the first two games of the series after injuring his oblique while taking batting practice on Monday.

The Angels announced their starting lineup for Wednesday, and Ohtani was noticeably absent due to his oblique ιnjury.After suffering an ιnjury on Monday, Ohtani was benched for both games on Monday and Tuesday. This oblique ailment has now caused him to miss all three games of a series.

Ohtani is as tough as they come, and the idea that he tried to play with an oblique ιnjury and a ruptured UCL after the team had already been eliminated from playoff contention is crаzy. But Ohtani is a competitor, and he wants to play for the Halos and their supporters as long as he can.

Ohtani is listed as “day to day” by manager Phil Nevin, so the Angels are keeping their fingers crossed that he will be able to return to action soon.

Why did the Angels use a Shohei Ohtani body double? | The Bandwagon

Hannah Keyser and Zach Crizer, two MLB reporters for Yahoo Sports, talk about the odd decision the Angels made on photo day. Yahoo Sports’ “The Bandwagon” is a baseball podcast that covers this topic in depth; listeners may subscribe to it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or any other podcast platform.It seemed like everyone who covers the Angels was on Twitter yesterday evening, but I believe it was Sam Blum of “The Athletic” who tweeted first: “Today was Angels photo day, but Shohei Ohtani was unavailable for it.” Stuff that with a pin. Quite a few uncertainties.

They probably utilized a body double and will re-create him digitally. Angels public relations snatched the body double and escorted him out a back door. Whoa. Incredible. What an intriguing topic. Allows for a wide variety of new topics to discuss, including what amounts to a free for all for cоnspiracy theorists. Do not bring up the notion that there is a lookalike on hand if a man does two things that have never been done before.

However, do they? The revelation of his likeness means that they no longer do. Unfortunately, this is not a visual medium, so we will have to speak the embarrassing bit out loud: the man with the No. 17 Angels jersey is a white man. They obviously messed up at that point.

And not like some young white guy, either, Zach.

HANNAH KEYSER: That’s where they messed up.

CRIZER, ZACH: Yeah.

When I first heard that, I thought, “Do they think all Asian me𝚗 look the same?” (HANNAH KEYSER). But then I realized that, in fact, they don’t. They saw an elderly white man in Shohei Ohtani.

ZACH CRIZER: If I had to wager, the only requirement for this person was his height.

That was going to be my precise point, Hannah Keyser.

ZACH CRIZER: All they cared about was how tall I was.

KEYSER, HANNAH: Who do we have here who is the same height as him, I’m sure they wondered. They were all like, “Who do you think he is?” Do you suppose he’s a member of the grounds staff or someone who works in the front desk or sells tickets? Like–

Okay, I get it, ZACH CRIZER. Like, they certainly just put out a — I meаn, I don’t know how you do this if you’re the Angels, but the PR department was like — I assume he’s like an IT person in the Angels.

HANNAH KEYSER: In this Slack channel.

ZACH CRIZER: –important notice for Angels staff. If you are a man and taller than 6 feet 4 inches, I need to see you at 3 o’clock in this room. There is something we must get from you.

HANNAH KEYSER: Do you think they lined him up, then did, like, this, and put their hand visually over their faces, and then asked, which one of these two would you most plausibly assume is the same body type? Because you might stand at 6 feet and 4 inches and still be hiding nothing

Thin as a rail, ZACH CRIZER.

No, Hannah Keyser, Shohei Ohtani is not a complete pitcher.

ZACH CRIZER: You might be quite skinny. You might have the physical shape of a pear. There are numerous possible approaches, therefore, sure. Instead of covering his mouth with their palm, I imagine they just looked at him and told the one who looked most like Ohtani to put on the number 17 jersey and not ask any questions.