The Red Sox haven't been stingy with their praise of Shohei Ohtani going back to the first time they faced the Angels this season.
But as Boston traveled to Los Angeles this time around, they got to see the unicorn athlete start both on the mound and as designated hitter while Ohtani helped his team tie up the series on Tuesday with a 5-3 win.
For the Red Sox, starting pitcher Nathan Eovaldi didn't necessarily have his best stuff. He was solid, but soft contact kept getting him into jams, switching up how he planned to attack Ohtani when the MVP hopeful was at the plate.
"He's definitely a threat," Eovaldi said. "I felt like he's one of their biggest threats in their lineup. For me it's attack him with the cutter, I felt like he doesn't see that as well. And then the curveball, you know, the curveball for me, it's like my changeup. It's the slowest pitch I have so the biggest change in, coming from the vertical drop, things like that. I feel like he has a hard time hitting that pitch for me so I try to keep in the back pocket, use it when I need to."
Unfortunately for Eovaldi, his plan of attack was hindered by his inability to keep David Fletcher off the basepaths. With Ohtani just after his Angels teammate in the order, the Red Sox starter had to be a bit more aggressive pitching to the Japanese sensation.
At the plate, Ohtani had a game-tying RBI-double that flew 107.5 mph off his bat. He threw seven full innings, giving up two runs on five hits and no walks with four strikeouts, and dealt a 65 mph curveball and a 98.5 mph fastball back-to-back.
The two-way performance impressed Boston manager Alex Cora, who perhaps underestimated Ohtani's development on the bump since the last time Red Sox batters faced him in 2018.
To be fair, Ohtani wasn't yet the first two-way All-Star in MLB history he proved to be this season.
"You know what, he is a different pitcher than in '18, we thought," Cora admitted. "I think in '18 when we came here it was early, of course, and the stuff was electric. Today, yeah, he threw hard and all that. But he pitched; he pitched today, you know? Fastballs up, the split down, slow breaking balls. ...Overall, you see him and he knows what he's doing out there, just watching him, and knowing the at bats, and you've got to run the bases -- it is amazing what he's doing. Unreal, you know? Because to do it at this level, I can't even imagine.
"It's great, it's great for baseball."
Here are more notes from Boston's loss to LA:
-- Xander Bogaerts was one robbed homerun away from changing the trajectory of the game.
In the top of the fourth, the shortstop stepped up to the plate with a 3-1 deficit and teammate Alex Verdugo on second base. He really did everything he could to tie the game for Boston, but Juan Lagares made an awesome play in center to keep the ball inside the park.
"He changed the game with that play," Cora said of Lagares. "That ball, that's a homerun. You know, it's (hypothetically) 4-3 us, but he's a good center fielder. I think we grinded at bats. We just weren't able to cash it in. ...He changed the game right there. We get the lead and obviously it's a different ballgame."
-- With a forgettable start behind him, Eovaldi now can look forward to what likely will be one of his most memorable outings ever.
Eovaldi will play in the All-Star Game for the first time in his 10-year career next week, and his manager anticipates we'll see him throwing 102 mph in the showcase.
Eovaldi isn't so sure he'll go all out to that extent, but he also acknowledged emotion and adrenaline could get the best of him.
"I'm gonna try to dial it back, I don't want to do too much, you know?" Eovaldi said after the start. "I want to be able to be ready for the Yankees after that. But I think with all the adrenaline and based on the other All-Stars there it's gonna be tough for me to dial it back. So we'll try and do my best though."
So Eovaldi can participate in the 2021 Midsummer Classic, Boston has to shake up the rotation a bit. The changes could stick around after the All-Star break, perhaps with Tanner Houck called up to enter the mix?
-- The Red Sox saw Danny Santana come out with a left quad injury, but are in a bit of a situation with no taxi squad players out in California on the road trip.
"It's his left quad," Cora said of Santana after the game. "You saw him limping towards the end. Hopefully he'd slowed down enough that it wasn't that bad. Obviously he's getting treatment. We'll come back tomorrow and see how he feels. With him, obviously, speed is part of this game. And then moving in the outfield and all that stuff so we got to be very careful. He has a past history with that."
Without Marwin Gonzalez, the manager suggested the Red Sox would be relying on its versatility with Christian Arroyo and Connor Wong, not being able to fly a player out in time for the afternoon game. Cora added they could activate Kevin Plawecki for the occasion, too.
-- One more game against the Angels decides the series and concludes the road trip on Wednesday. First pitch from Los Angeles is at 4:10 p.m. ET with pregame coverage on NESN beginning at 3 p.m.
