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.

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 apparently an issue with BART trains as well (which BART later denied).

IN any eent, 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.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Shohei Ohtani has start pushed back after Angels team bus is delayed