9:21 PM ET

ANAHEIM, Calif. — On what was in many ways a difficult afternoon,

“I had to go up and down the dugout after the next half-inning because the whole place was deflated,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said. “Everybody was like, ‘What happened?’ And I’m like, ‘He’s human, he’s gonna give up runs.'”

Ohtani allowed the first six batters of the fourth inning to reach — one on a walk, one on a double, two on hit by pitches and two on home runs. The seventh, Aledmys Diaz, hit a 367-foot lineout. Ohtani felt he was “a little passive, trying to protect our lead too much.” But he came back to retire eight of the next 10 batters, completing six innings to ultimately capture his fourth win.

“It just shows how good he is,” Wallach said.

“Vintage stuff,” Nevin said of how Ohtani preformed down the stretch. “You saw him get a little angry. I think you saw a couple of 100s, 101s out there. He wants to be perfect; I know that. He wants to be great, and he is. So when those innings happen, it frustrates him.”

Despite allowing five runs, Ohtani scattered only three hits. It marked the 10th consecutive time Ohtani had allowed three hits or less, tying Jacob deGrom for the longest streak by a starting pitcher since the mound moved to its current distance in 1893, according to research from the Elias Sports Bureau.

Had he managed a few more feet on his latest drive, he would have stood alone another way.

Ohtani, who hit for the cycle in June 2019, would have become the first player since Jimmy Ryan of the Chicago White Stockings in 1888 to hit for the cycle during a game in which he also pitched. Ryan, though, started that game in center field and merely came in for relief. No player had accomplished the feat while also serving as a starting pitcher, an unsurprising circumstance given that Ohtani qualifies as the first two-way player since Babe Ruth.

Instead, Ohtani became the first player to strike out eight batters and hit a single, a double and a triple in the same game since Dave Danforth of the St. Louis Browns on Aug. 25, 1923. During his first four starts, Ohtani has contributed more hits himself (seven) than he has allowed to others (six), an unprecedented feat. By the time the bottom of the third came to an end, Ohtani had already accumulated a single and a double as a hitter, while rolling through the worst team in baseball on the mound.

Nevin began to consider the possibility of a hitting cycle and a perfect game simultaneously.

Said Nevin: “You’re thinking those things whenever he’s out there.”