Angels 5 Red Sox 3
The narrative going into tonight would be that the Japanese phenom who couldn’t get out of the 1st inning in his last start would be taking on his hardest assignment all season. The Boston Red Sox were still in town with the most wins in baseball, and many casual viewers had already turned on the stud.
And for a minute, Ohtani still looked human. A leadoff double was surrendered to Kike Hernandez, who would later come around to score on a sacrifice fly. But the end of the inning did come this time on an impressive or lucky (or both) snag from the mound, and then the game started.
David Fletcher pushed the first pitch he saw from fireballer Nathan Eovaldi down the line to extend his hitting streak, matching the Red Sox half of the inning. Shohei Ohtani had an opportunity to make up for the run he allowed and two pitches later, he cashed in.
With 2 outs, Max Stassi stepped up and did not hesitate to bring the Angels their first lead of the series.
When Ohtani stepped back up on the mound in the 2nd, he was a different man. In typical fashion, he buckled down after the “shaky” first (in which he didn’t allow a hit with runners in scoring position) and cruised until the 6th with efficient placement of his pitches and a focus on inducing catchable contact instead of trying to whiff every guy seen.
Speaking of a notable difference in pitching strategy, Ohtani had a different catcher for the first time in a few months. Magically, 65 of his 89 pitches would be strikes. Must be some kind of coincidence.
But in the 6th, JD Martinez would dump an RBI single into left before Xander Bogaerts stepped up to bat. Ohtani served one up that seemed to spell doom for the night until it didn’t.
This wasn’t your cheapy little Kike Hernandez robbery like last night. This was a running yellow-line leaping robbery. With all of the momentum on the Angels’ side, they would then sort of luck into a few more runs, but the Red Sox were done in spite of a Hunter Renfroe meaningless solo shot in the top of the 9th.
David Fletcher went 4-4, Max Stassi was a triple shy of the cycle, and Ohtani went 7 innings with NO walks allowed. This was precisely the kind of game the Angels needed to make a statement, and make a statement they did.
Ohtani is one of the best players I have ever seen in my lifetime.
One of?
“One of the best?”
Can you name anyone you’ve seen not named Mike Trout who you think is better ?
The only disappointment in this game is Ottavino didn’t get to bat.
Anybody else think it’s really weird that Fletch still doesn’t have a home run this year? I’m guessing that he is so zeroed in on swinging for contact that that whole modern home run swing mode is just not an option. Not complaining, mind you. Love me some serious Fletch doubles, oh yeah. Just this is a pretty weird statistical anomaly.
Ohtani was facing Danny Santana in the top of the 5th tonight, and threw a 67 mph curve that Santana looked at for a strike, followed by a 97 mph heater that he swung at and missed.
Tales From the Supernatural.
Video here:
https://twitter.com/PitchingNinja/status/1412608968254500867
When you originally posted the video, I only got a wall of code, but no video. That is why I posted the video below.
Except for the speed of the ball, everything is samesies.
Headline of the recap over at “Over the Monster”.
“Red Sox 3, Angels 5: This Shohei Ohtani guy seems pretty good“
Appreciate your efforts in gathering enemy intel. Always interesting to see that the evil doers are thinking. Well done, look forward to your briefing on those hippy bastards in Seattle.
F**k the Red Soxs!
Here’s a tough idea to chew on. Say Ohtani is probably able to get 25-32M a year as an FA right now if the season plays out kind of like it has now for him. He’s an FA in 2024. Do you try to extend him now while love is in the air at say 30M AAV? What if he only hits and pitches as often as he does for 2-3 more years? How long do you extend him? While Pujols and Upton come off the books, it is doubtful the Angels can pay Rendon/Trout/Ohtani all that cash and still spring for a single 30M a year pitcher (other than Shohei)… is keeping Ohtani worth having fairly bargain rate pitching and/or betting on developing cheap pitching down the line?
Of coarse the dream is “Extend Ohtani, buy out his remaining pre-arb and arb year at a high rate plus two of his FA years at an AAV of aroun 18-20!” but if that’s your plan then you better hope Ohtani has the worst agent ever or REALLY wants to play here. That’s not a plan, it’s a hope.
So what would you do with this awesome beast?
#1 thing I’d do with him is I’d have him slap Joe for benching Rojas for Ward tonight…🤷🏽♂️
“A deal is a deal” Mr Moreno
Nothing happens until Spring Training 2023, there is no need to do anything right now.
Shohei will make what ever he earns, and Arte won’t pay until he has to.
Shohei gets traded during ST 2023, and we never need to have him sign a contract.
I don’t like that scenario
Not sure I agree with the final conclusion.
I do however agree with the other points;
a) Arte will not pay until he has to b) nothing significant will happen prior to Spring 2023.
He won’t pay and will let him walk ( can you say Zack Greinke? I knew you could! ).
Awesome dilemma to have!
If Arte is serious about winning with his major league team he will spend more money.
Other teams blow past the cap and figure out how to play it. Arte can, too.
Or he can hire competent scouts and we can build a farm system to complement Trout and Ohtani.
Arte is 74. Respectfully, it’s not unrealistic to give thought to the post-Arte years and what that could mean for the franchise. His day to day involvement will begin to change in the not too distant future
Give him a generous portion of extra cheese before it’s required, hope that will make Sho’ Mo’ likely to want to hang with us at a reasonable rate longer term. It doesn’t exactly seem like his #1 motivation is money, he knows he’ll get paid. Lucky for us Arte seems to be willing to sign off on big contracts to stars. As you stated, probably will limit a big ticket pitcher, might not be a bad thing.
Which is why we need to be like the D-Rays and Indians and grow our own pitchers and let them all walk when they turn 30 as FA’s. Giants found Gausman and DeSclafani by dumpster diving. Yes Farhan Zaidi came from the Oakland A’s and was mentored by none other than Billy Beane.
Also…he’ll make $5.5 mil in 2022 and then probably $30 mil in 2023 before he gets to UFA.
Trade Rendon and Trout
The issue for this franchise remains contract durations not AAV. Ohtani is 27. If he can be locked up through his age 32 or 33 season, do it.
Trout is 30, Rendon is 31. We’re already seeing the injuries are more frequent and heal slower for both.
Them injuries come from years of constant competition to become major leaguers. The abuse on their bodies has finally caught up.
And BTW Jered Walsh is already 27.
Arte should spend all that money on poaching Farhan Zaidi away or stoop low and go after Jeff Luhnow. Or else he just doesn’t want to win. Waiting for all those rich people to buy season tickets and get in their expensive European SUV’s ( MB, Bayerische Motoren Werke, Volvo, Land Rover ) and go to Cost Plus World Market or Williams Sonoma after losing on Sunday afternoons. Bye!!!!
Oh yea and I might’ve missed it on the game thread…but how disgusting was it that Maddon sat Rojas for Ward after his night last night. Was speechless….unless he got hurt and I missed it.
All it takes is not starting Jose Friggin Rojas to make you speechless?
We discussed it on the thread, I was like you but put in my place.
Lefties are batting .040 points higher than righties against Eovaldi. .280ish to .240ish, but in the end, it made no diff.
https://youtu.be/2xAJVri2a1U
Yea I figured it was Sosh Jr. overthinking it again. Ward has been struggling. Rojas looked locked in last night. Try and ride it out man..🤦🏽♂️Anyways got the win. So whatever.
Any team that has to choose between either Ward or Rojas in the starting lineup is not expecting to play into October.
Nice win boys! Ohtani impressed me even more today. Seemed like it was his B stuff and he battled. Love to see it. Taking the kid tmmrw. He was disappointed that it might be a scheduled loss with Heaney but can’t miss a chance to see the SHO live!
Hope he hits tomorrow, talk of day off, combining it with the off day Thursday. He’s a machine, doesn’t need any rest!
Him DH’ing everyday saves a lot of wear and tear. Don’t think they should ever try to get him in the field other than to extend his hitting when pitching. Definitely get him more comfortable in the OF but save his energy at DH.
A great game for two way sensation Shohei Ohtani.
That’s what I’m calling him now, like the national media does.
Shohei rolls both ways, nothing wrong with that, unless you are on the other team
That must be so hard to deal with … glad i don’t have to worry about that.
Fuck yeah (july). Watched from a bar in Phoenix where all but one tv was on the suns game. So fun.
Being that Ohtani saved some for tomorrow, maybe he will be able to face that Boston Biotch and sho him who’s daddy
The Jawa at the right is posting on Crashing the Pearly Gates?
rez?
Also Boston sb nation called Otto’s words last night classless, respect
I remember when we were average. Now we’re a winning club.
Score one for Perry:
JUAN LAGARES OF
February 11, 2021: Signed as a Free Agent with the Los Angeles Angels.
Lagares Bogarting Xanders HR
You stole that, you thief!!! 😆
Did it just occur to anyone else that Ohtani doesn’t speak English so he didn’t hear Ottavino yesterday? Is that a possibility? Just wondering friends
Ippei does
yeah but he wasn’t on the field when it was said
There’s a mini-Ippei who sits on Shohei’s shoulder … he was there.
Nah. Shohei is so good, he sits on his own shoulders, both the right and left, and both are unbelievably great.
Shohei speaks and understands on the field English just fine. Ippe is there for the interviews so he doesn’t get is quoted.
Then screw that Ottavino!
Trout said Ohtani speaks English
gotchu
What did Ottabino say? I missed it.
He yelled “Happy Birthday, bitch” to Ohtani.
Whoa. Extremely classless.
Ottavino had just pitched poorly, almost blew the game, was saved by the shift, having had his pitch to two way sensation Shohei Ohtani blasted where there’d normally be a hole, and, feeling his own manhood threatened, acted like he did something good.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8rOUYS-RYTY
Ohtani knows English, he learned it at school. He has an interpreter because he isn’t fluent and it makes sure that there isn’t any miscommunications in vital situations.
To be fair, all Japanese “learn” English at school, but it is taught about as well has high school Spanish in the States. But yeah, if he heard him over the screaming Sux fans I’m sure he understood that simple phrase.
I like ground-ball Shohei! Made for a quick game, and he pitched late In a game for once.
Lost in all of this was some Fletch awesomeness.
All he did was go 4 for 4.
Serious awesomeness
That was glorious. All hail Ohtani! Oh, and that gold glove guy.
We lost our other gold glover last week, so Larages is carrying all the metal.
Both games arguably determined by an outfielder robbing 2-run HRs.