MIAMI – The script, everyone kept talking about the script. For the past month and a half, Mike Trout has been hearing all about how it’s going to play out. Him in the batter’s box. Shohei Ohtani on the hill. The perfect matchup for the World Baseball Classic. And when the US and Japan reached the final, the perfect ending.
The script was what the fans wanted, for sure. But in sports, the script only works well for one side. When it was over, after Ohtani beat Trout and Japan beat USA 3-2, some of the US players had a few words on the script. It wasn’t her happy ending, you know?
Paul Goldschmidt, who was on deck when Trout reached the finals: “Trout and I went back to back and (Ryan) Pressly would have been better.”
Trea Turner, referencing pinch-hitter Jeff McNeil’s walk to start the ninth: “I was hoping when Jeff got to base and Mike hit a two-run homer to win the game, that everyone would go mad, that the world would end.”
Forelle himself: “It sucks that it didn’t go the way I wanted it to.”
The US players were not unfavorable in the loss; But on the contrary. They spoke enthusiastically to one man about their WBC experiences and praised the skills of their Japanese opponents. But if they were content, they wouldn’t be who they are. The best players in the world don’t want to write a Hollywood ending. No, they’re just dying to compete.
That’s what Trout vs. Ohtani was about, that’s what the WBC was about, that’s what sport is all about.
The two best players in the world, who happen to be teammates for the perpetually disappointing Angels, created a moment for the ages on Tuesday night. Part of that was of course the script, the imaginary showdown that came to fruition. However, the ending was far more dramatic than a first pitch pop-up would have been. The lasting memory will be how Trout and Ohtani battled and challenged each other’s mastery of the sport.
It was Ali-Frazier in the batter’s box.
Trout conceded, “He won the first round.”
Mike Trout hits to end the game. (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
Before the game, Japan coach Hideki Kuriyama gave no hints as to how he intended to use Ohtani or fellow starter Yu Darvish, who preceded him in relief. Kuriyama, in his friendly manner, hemmed and hooked about how he needed to communicate with both pitchers, but left open the possibility that either could take the mound.
The manager’s decision to start left-hander Shota Imanaga only added to the intrigue surrounding Japan’s pitching, considering four of the game’s best right-handers were at the top of the US lineup. But Imanaga had reverse splits and a fastball with a carry that Team USA’s hitters compared to Max Fried’s. Darvish, on the other hand, had bad numbers against Trout, Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, the Americans’ 2-3-4. When Imanaga allowed just one run in his two innings, on Turner’s fifth homer, which led the tournament, the plan began to take shape.
Four relievers, each with evil, different repertoires, bridged the gap from Imanaga to Darvish and Ohtani and combined for five scoreless innings. Ohtani jogged to the bullpen twice after the fifth, only to return to the dugout as his place in the lineup approached. Knowing when to warm him up was difficult considering he was also Japan’s DH. But as the drama built, Kuriyama’s desired endgame became clear: Darvish for the eighth, Ohtani for the ninth.
A hard-fought 10-pitch at-bat between Darvish and Kyle Schwarber ended in a home run, bringing Team USA close to a single run. At this point, Ohtani was clear enough that he could pitch. Turns out his last shot was in the seventh. He didn’t come close to a hit in the eighth, and he told me in his postgame interview on FS1 that a replay at the end of the inning gave him time to slowly go to the mound.
The last time he closed was in a playoff game in 2016 when he was still fielding in Japan. Fox’s John Smoltz, a Hall of Famer pitcher, warned on the show that Ohtani may be overwhelmed. He certainly looked the part while spraying fastballs in the warm up and starting the ninth by walking McNeil.
Three former MVPs, Mookie Betts, Trout and Goldschmidt were Team USA’s next hitters. However, the US rally faded after only two pitches. Ohtani knocked out Betts with a 4-6-3 doubles, so when Trout stepped on the plate, he represented both the final and the tie.
“When we got that doubles game, I saw (right fielder Kensuke) Kondoh kind of celebrating,” said Japan left fielder Lars Nootbaar. “I sat in left field and said, ‘Listen, good doubles game, but we’ve got Mike Trout coming to the plate right now. Let’s not overlap.”
Virtually everyone in the sold-out crowd of 36,098 stood as the showdown between Ohtani and Trout began. Team USA manager Mark DeRosa saw Trout take a deep breath and try to control his emotions. Trout glanced over at Ohtani, apparently without much acknowledgment in return.
“He’s a competitor, man,” Trout said. “That’s why he’s the best.
Ohtani’s first pitch, an 88-mile slider, was a ball. He later said on the MLB Network that the way Trout took the field told him the bat was expecting something soft. Ohtani seized the moment and started attacking with his fastball.
Trout swung through 100 mph and nodded at the hill as if to say, “Good climb.” Ohtani then missed just outside at 100, a difficult climb for Trout to nix, only to come back with a better-placed 99. Trout also swung through this incline. But when Ohtani leapfrogged a low 101-mile stoker past Yuhei Nakamura, the count ran to 3-2.
Ohtani had thrown four straight fastballs. Trout hadn’t shown he could handle the heat. Arenado suspected another fastball was coming because Ohtani didn’t want to run a second batter in the inning. Instead, Ohtani threw a great, sweeping slider that Trout hit for the third shot.
“Great field,” said Arenado. “If Mike Trout can’t do it, I don’t think anyone else will.”
Ohtani screamed with delight as he jumped off the hill and threw away his cap and glove. How rare was it for Trout to swing and miss three times in a single at-bat? So, according to Codify Baseballhe’s done it just 24 times in 6,174 career major league record appearances.
Though Trout didn’t say it, Team USA coach Michael Young pointed out a factor that many teams mentioned throughout the tournament: That batsmen are still in the middle of spring practice, optimizing their swings for the regular season.
“I would have loved it if Trouty hadn’t been in mid-March so he could super, super dial in,” Young said.
Wait, wasn’t Ohtani mid-March too?
“Of course, but his stuff is ripping off for mid-March,” Young said. “He hits 101.”
Some numbers:
Ohtani had the WBC’s hardest hit ball, 118.7 mph. He was the longest homer at 448 feet and the fastest pitched pitch at 102 miles per hour. When he hit an infield single in the seventh, Stat cast measured its speed as a borderline elite.
A few more numbers:
As a hitter, Ohtani hit 435/.606/.739 in the tournament, with four doubles, a home run and eight RBIs. As a pitcher, he produced a 1.86 ERA with 11 strikeouts in 9 2/3 innings. No one drew an Aaron Judge and dared challenge him for MVP.
“I stopped pitching when I was 13 because I wasn’t good anymore,” Young said. “F—— Guy does both in the big leagues.”
Or as DeRosa put it, “What he does in the game is what probably 90 percent of the guys in this clubhouse did in little league or youth tournaments, and he can do it on the biggest stages.”
And yet Ohtani impressed in other ways too. At 28, in his sixth major league season, he’s beginning to show his competitive advantage and leadership skills to the outside world.
During batting practice Tuesday, Ohtani hit outdoors again, which he almost never does during the regular season, focusing on his batting cage mechanics rather than home runs. The day before, he decided to send “a little message” to Team Mexico with his stunning show of strength. He did the same before the final against Team USA.
“Guy hits the scoreboard in batting practice,” Arenado said. “It’s incredible.”
Ohtani conveyed a different, louder message to his teammates in the clubhouse before the game. Fearing that Japan’s younger players in particular could be intimidated by the US stars, he urged the team to be aggressive.
“Let’s stop admiring her,” Ohtani said. “…If you admire her, you cannot surpass her. We came to surpass them, to reach the top. Let’s throw away our admiration for her for a day and just think about winning.”
Japan did, and delivered a typically efficient and flawless performance. And it all ended up falling into place for Ohtani to take on Trout as if someone were actually writing a screenplay, the kind of neat narrative the baseball gods almost always seem to scoff at.
“I didn’t expect that he would literally be the last batter of the game,” Ohtani said on FS1. “I thought it was a possibility but I can’t believe he was the last batter of the game.”
Team Japan first baseman Kazuma Okamoto said, “It was like a manga, like a comic,” only there was one difference.
In comics, the characters are fictional. In the closing sequence of the WBC, they couldn’t have been more real.
(Top Photo: Eric Espada/Getty Images)