Michael Wacha’s complete-game shutout Monday night for the Boston Red Sox against the Los Angeles Angels came with a few tense moments.
But probably none more pressure-packed than facing Shohei Ohtani in the bottom of the sixth with the tying run on second base and Wacha trying to protect a one-run lead.
Even with first base open, the veteran right-hander didn’t bypass Ohtani. Wacha attacked the left-handed slugger before pumping a 96 miles-per-hour fastball at the top of zone by Ohtani to end the threat and the inning.
Fanning Ohtani became a monumental sequence in Wacha’s brilliant performance, as he went the distance by allowing just three hits — only one of which came after the first inning — to go along with six strikeouts and one walk.
“Obviously Ohtani is one of the greats in this game right now,” Wacha said, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “Had a guy in scoring position, and got to try to strand that runner out there as best as I can, and went for the punch-out and was able to get to a swing and miss. They didn’t miss much other pitches tonight. Hit the ball pretty hard, but that was a big strikeout there in the sixth.”
With Wacha down to his final out of the contest and Ohtani, who finished 1-for-4, stepping in the batter’s box again in the bottom of the ninth, Wacha approached him differently.
Wacha threw Ohtani, who has 11 home runs on the season and could tie the game with one swing of the bat, a first-pitch change-up to get Ohtani to weakly ground out to second base to end the game.
“Anytime he steps in the box, you’re on full awareness out there on the mound,” Wacha said. “You got to make really, really quality pitches to him.”
The Red Sox will look to stretch their winning streak to six games on Tuesday when they take on the Angels again. First pitch is scheduled for 9:38 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage on NESN.
