Sometimes you just have to tip your cap after a loss.
Tuesday was one of those nights for the Boston Red Sox, dropping a 5-3 result to the Los Angeles Angels with Shohei Ohtani at the plate and on the mound.
The Japanese sensation threw seven full innings, giving up two runs on five hits and no walks with four strikeouts. He threw a 65 mph curveball and a 98.5 mph fastball back-to-back, and at the plate, had a game-tying RBI-double that flew 107.5 mph off his bat.
Nathan Eovaldi didn’t have his best stuff on the mound for Boston, falling to 9-5 on the season.
With the loss, the Red Sox now are 54-33. Here’s how it all went down.
GAME IN A WORD (OR FOUR)
What can you do?
Between facing Major League Baseball’s resident unicorn in Ohtani and Juan Lagares robbing Xander Bogaerts of a go-ahead homer, the answer is not a lot.
ON THE MOUND
— Eovaldi didn’t have his best start of the year, despite striking out nine batters. He lasted 5 2/3 innings, giving up five runs off nine hits and a walk. He threw 71 of his 104 pitches for strikes, but his ERA increased a tad to 3.66 as he heads to Denver to participate in the All-Star Game.
–Brandon Workman struck out Ohtani to get out of the bases-loaded jam he and Eovaldi caused in the sixth, and kept the seventh scoreless.
— Yacksel Rios got the ball in the eighth, striking out one in a clean inning.
IN THE BATTER’S BOX
— Boston struck first in the top of the first after Kiké Hernández hit a leadoff double and scored on a sacrifice fly to left from J.D. Martinez.
— Following two consecutive 1-2-3 innings for the Red Sox at the plate, Alex Verdugo doubled in the fourth.
— Connor Wong started the top of the sixth with a double deep to right field. He made a headsy play to steal third, and scored Boston’s second run of the game off another RBI from Martinez.
— Hunter Renfroe hit a solo homer in the ninth to make it a 5-3 game, but that’s as close as Boston would get.
— In addition to Hernandez, Verdugo, Martinez, Wong, and Renfroe, Rafael Devers also recorded a hit Tuesday.
TWEET OF THE GAME
Credit where credit is due.
UP NEXT
The series finale between the Red Sox and Angels is set for Wednesday at 4:07 p.m. ET. After that, it’s back to Boston for a homestand against the Philadelphia Phillies.
