Angels 4, White Sox 2: Shohei Ohtani too much for the Sox
One of the coolest games I’ve attended was on April 29, 2009. It was between the Milwaukee Brewers and Pittsburgh Pirates, with Yovani Gallardo making the start. On the mound, Gallardo was brilliant, going eight shutout innings, allowing two one and walking one batter with an impressive 11 strikeouts. Unfortunately for the Brewers offense, they couldn’t provide any run support.
That changed in the seventh inning when on an 0-2 pitch, Gallardo crushed a solo home run to left field. Milwaukee would win 1-0, and it was terrific that Gallardo won the game by himself.
Fast forward to tonight, and it was Shohei Ohtani on the mound for Los Angeles. With how the White Sox offense has been hitting against RHP at a .231/.288/.386 clip, Ohtani was set for a big night on the mound. As the MLB home run leader, he was trying to keep his dinger streak alive against the White Sox.
In the first inning, Ohtani rocked Michael Kopech with a deep home run to left field, giving the Angels an early 1-0 lead. I wondered if Ohtani would duplicate Gallardo’s achievement as the game headed into the fourth inning. Mike Trout had the night off, which made the Angels lineup less dangerous.
As Kopech battled with control again, Luis Rengifo complicated matters. His liner down the right field line rattled in the corner, which resulted in a standup triple. After Kopech walked Chad Wallach, it was David Fletcher at the plate. Known to be a high-contact hitter, Kopech needed a strikeout or a well-placed grounder to keep Rengifo at third base. Instead, Fletcher hit a grounder hard enough to force Elvis Andrus to make a diving stop. At first, the call was Fletcher reached safely for an infield hit. After an instant replay review, that call was overturned.
But the fielder’s choice RBI gave Los Angeles a 2-0 lead. While Kopech struck out Mickey Moniak to end the frame, his pitch count was 91. In his last start against Texas, Kopech was done after four innings at 86 pitches.
Not tonight. Kopech started the fifth inning but didn’t record an out when Ohtani singled, and Brandon Drury walked. At 102 pitches, Grifol then made the change, having Touki Toussaint replace Kopech. Facing Mike Moustakas, Toussaint got a grounder hit at Gavin Sheets covering first base to start the 3-6-1 double play. Toussaint would get out of the jam scoreless after striking out Hunter Renfroe.
That made Kopech’s outing official, and it wasn’t a pretty final line: 4.0 IP 4 H 2 ER 7 BB 3 K. The seven walks from Kopech match Lucas Giolito’s total on May 25 against Detroit.
Through the first five innings, the White Sox offense was dormant. Eloy Jimenez doubled but was left stranded. Yasmani Grandal singled but would get doubled off when Jake Burger lined out to Renfroe in right field.
It took until the sixth inning for the White Sox to have multiple base runners on when Andrus walked, and Andrew Benintendi singled. But Tim Anderson struck out looking, and despite some deep foul balls hit, Luis Robert whiffed on Ohtani’s splitter ending that threat.
Angels manager Phil Nevin stuck with Ohtani to start the seventh inning, and Eloy Jimenez greeted him with a leadoff single, his second base hit of the game. Jimenez would advance to second base off a wild pitch. Next was Grandal, and after falling behind 0-2, would watch Ohtani’s cutters and sweepers sail wide off the plate to draw a walk.
On those pitches, Ohtani was funnily falling off the mound. Angels pitching coach Matt Wise called for the training staff during a mound visit. After a brief conversation, Nevin called for Jacob Webb to relieve Ohtani, who stopped pitching due to a cracked fingernail.
Grifol made his second coach’s challenge when Burger hit a grounder to Fletcher at short. It was an excellent defensive play as Fletcher made the diving stop and throw to third base for the force out. The call was upheld, leaving the White Sox with runners on first and second base. Clint Frazier entered the game to pinch run for Grandal and scored the White Sox’s first run when Sheets lined a single to right field. Webb eventually got out of the jam when Andrus grounded out.
Back to Ohtani. He stayed in the game, taking over the DH spot, and despite a cracked fingernail, smashed his second home run of the game with a deep fly to center field. His 28th home run of the season made it a 3-1 game. Moustakas would make it 4-1 with an RBI single.
Then things got interesting in the ninth inning. With Carlos Estevez pitching for the Angels, things got dicey for Los Angeles. Jimenez hit his second leadoff double of the night, and this time he scored thanks to Vaughn’s RBI single. Now down 4-2, Zach Remillard kept the line moving with a single to center field. Now the go-ahead run was batting for the White Sox.
That was in the form of Jake Burger, and after whiffing on high fastballs, he did manage a grounder at Fletcher, this time was covering second base. But a bobble by Fletcher and Moustakas not covering first base allowed an infield single to load the bases with no outs.
In true White Sox fashion, all hopes were dashed when Seby Zavala struck out, and Andrus grounded into the 5-4-3 double play ending the game.
Game Notes:
- Shohei Ohtani went 3-for-3 with 2 HR and a BB. His final pitching line was 6.1 IP 4 H 1 ER 2 BB 10 K.
- Eloy Jimenez went 3-for-4 with 2 doubles and a single
- Andrew Vaughn went 1-for-4 with RBI
- Gavin Sheets went 1-for-3 with RBI
- Tim Anderson went 0-for-4 with 3 K’s. His season OPS is .542. He’ll probably bat second tomorrow.
Record: 34-47 | Box Score | StatCast
Author
There is no dishonor in losing to Shohei Ohtani, but bases loaded no outs followed by a strikeout and ground-out double play is yet another Eat at Arby’s moment.
Feels like an Arby’s franchise.
Let’s see if I can comment yet…..
Huh, that worked. The gamethread rightly called me a nonce and refused my stabs at brilliance.
(The non- British version, oh God I should’ve Googled slang I’m not familiar with. )
Want us to leave the room?
Ohtani is fun. Not even mad for the 9th, the game would’ve been less fun if it ended up in another Tungsten moment.
I….disagree
It’ll be fun if Colas ever starts living up to his billing as the Cuban Ohtani. Should be any day now.
I’d even settle for the Cuban Hunter Renfroe!
Hahn needs to sell. Start trading players. For whatever he can get. It is not as much as to restock the farm. That’s impossible with the kind of assets this team has. He should trade players so next year we don’t have this aberration of roster. This is not a team needing to catch a break. This is not small sample size. This is a bad team that can’t hit RHP and not even LHP. It has been like that for a few years. This roster does not work. Too many “same player” profiles.
I still sadistically say ride it out. In a perverse way it will make Hahn pay for his negligence.
To what extent though? Players value (and interest) is high at the trade deadline. Do you have hopes this team catches fire for the rest of the season and we win the ALC? I highly doubt it. We have played half season already. We are a dozen or so games under 500. That’s what we are. That’s the real talent plus or minus 5 games. That’s it.
That we are not eliminated already is because the Twins and the Guardians are terrible teams. It has nothing to do with what the White Sox team can do. I honestly believe the Guardians will win this division, and by a wide margin when the dust settles.
I think a GM (not Hahn) can build an interesting team around Cease, Kopech, Benintendi and Robert Jr. Everybody else must go. As I said before, perhaps we can keep one of the others. Maybe Vaughn or Burger.
“Do you have hopes this team catches fire for the rest of the season and we win the ALC?” Yes. I want joy this year. suckage be next year guy’s problem.
If you want joy this year, brother, you are looking in the wrong place. As is everybody that follows this shitshow team.
I upvoted your comment because I also want joy. I watch every game of the White Sox, but I am realistic. This is a bad team, and I am finding it disheartening to see most of these players next year because that would mean, another shitshow with the same players, and 1 year older.
I rather we see Lenyns, Jose Rodriguezes, Colases, I don’t know, new blood. I want to see players that can run, field, don’t grimace at every turn. Players that give a fuck. That are motivated.
Very reasonable take. It doesn’t matter what fans want, of course. Low attendance and a relatively high payroll (for Jerry) will make him want to dump payroll like there is no tomorrow. I think it is almost a certainty that trades are coming, maybe/hopefully sooner than we think.
I agree Guards will win by wide margin. They are better than this, even if not great. Twins and Guards are both mediocre teams. The Sox are a bad team, with worse depth, defense, and manager. Keep the guys you mention (and Beni only b/c they can’t trade him), maybe Vaughn/Burger/Eloy, deal everybody else that they can. That’s the only sensible thing to do.
I don’t mind Benintendi. Not crazy about the defense not being as advertised. And he will likely never hit for much power. But if the bad hand was holding him back, he could end up ok. He at least seems to have an idea what to do. And that is a step for this team.
Burger might still develop a Schwarber profile if he can lay off some pitches and take walks. Probably not likely, but maybe some chance.
Beni isn’t awful, but to have the distinction of getting the biggest contract in club history is truly pathetic. He is the perfect symbol of the true highest aspirations of this ownership – mediocrity.
But there were other FA outfielders who didn’t have hand issues heading into the season. Just like last year there were RPs who weren’t dealing with freaking nerve issues in their biceps! I think Jim wrote about this. A great place to start if you’re an incompetent outfit: sign FAs who are healthy
Sure, nothing he does changes the fact the organization felt that they needed to overspend just to get basic competence.
Yes, sell. Pointless to hope this roster does anything, or to get nothing in return for their plethora of players leaving in the next 2 years. With slumping attendance and fan interest at an all time low, I can’t fathom them riding it out, given that the most natural thing to do from a business standpoint is to cut payroll.
If Jerry doesn’t tell Hahn to sell for payroll reasons alone, I would be absolutely shocked.
No he needs to resign. He is in incapable of doing the job.
The lack of give a fuck from the players, gm, coaching staff, owner etc is just astounding at this point. Not sure I can remember a lower time to be a sox fan. Sure they have had worse teams but the absolute dog shit lack of effort and lack of accountability has never been this bad. What a pathetic product.
Effort and vibe are lacking, but their real problems are having way too many bad and oft injured players, dog shit depth, and Robert is their only really good position player. Lack of effort isn’t the cause of their inability to hit RHP for 3+ years, the fact that they don’t have a major league level RF or 2b on the roster, or Moncada/Eloy/Tim being hurt 1/3 of the time.
They are 20 games behind the Rays, with the 26th best record and run diff. That’s about the roster much more than effort. Winning this division to be the 10th best team and ensured of being an embarrassment in the playoffs is meaningless. This roster is hopeless. The players are not stupid and know everything we do. They have no chance of winning until they get several much better players, which they promised but won’t get b/c this ownership blows. Jerry’s cheapness and Hahn’s smug, phony narratives that the players know are bullshit are the root of lack of effort. Everything comes from them. They needed to add like 2 or 3 really solid players, the likes of Harper, Semien. That’s a chasm, considering that they have bad AAA level players at those two positions instead. If they actually had a good team, the effort would naturally be there.
Blow it up already, at least dealing guys leaving at the end of 2023/4. There is no future for this ill conceived roster. Blowing it up won’t fix it, but it’s still the only thing to do.
I know the Sox should sell, but I would like to see them fire Pedro to see if a manager who doesn’t consistently empty his bench by the seventh inning and isn’t insistent upon using Lopez and Bummer in high-leverage situations might be able to get some kind of dead-cat bounce from this team.
This team has put me in the “officially hate watching” category. The team itself is boring and doesnt really play baseball all that great together, so hate watching them find ways to lose games while enjoying the opposing team’s players is how to deal with it. Jerry and Co. should be so proud of this “contention window”.