ANAHEIM, Calif. — One of baseball’s most electrifying moments in the last half-decade will have its sequel on Wednesday night. The original spectacle might be a little difficult to top.
The stakes might just be a bit different as Shohei Ohtani faces his former team as a pitcher for the first time, reprising a memorable matchup against former teammate Mike Trout when Ohtani’s Los Angeles Dodgers take on the Angels.
“I remember catching myself watching Shohei and Trout, like I can’t believe I’m witnessing this showdown,’’ Nolan Arenado said Tuesday, recalling the duel of two years ago.
“I mean, if you’re talking about on a world scale for baseball, that was as big as it gets, that moment,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
The iconic image of the 2023 World Baseball Classic final was Ohtani bringing Little League play onto baseball’s grandest international stage, with a mop of sweat and a dirt stain on his pants as he entered to close out a 3-2 ballgame. Ohtani walked rather than jogged his way in from the bullpen at loanDepot Park, tasked with recording the final three outs on the mound for Samurai Japan against a collection of the United States’ greatest baseball talents.
For years, Ohtani and Trout had shared a diamond. They had been Angels teammates over some of their individual MVP seasons, a future Hall of Fame pairing whose lack of regular-season success made the World Baseball Classic their grandest stage. Finally, the two stars would square off head to head, battling to a full count that would ultimately decide the tournament. One teammate represented the final boss.
Ohtani won the six-pitch battle, unleashing a sweeper that swept away from Trout’s bat for a strikeout to cap off the title. Ohtani chucked his glove as Trout looked on.
“It was just a moment in history that, in that situation, may never happen again,” said Mookie Betts, whose at-bat preceded Trout’s and who now calls Ohtani a teammate with the Dodgers.
“It was like a movie script coming together that you have Shohei Ohtani, team Japan, versus Mike Trout, team USA,” said Dino Ebel, team USA’s third-base coach that night. “To have that kind of matchup and that kind of atmosphere, it’s something I will never forget.”
Ohtani’s two-way exploits had made the logistics of the feat difficult. He sat in the home bullpen through the top of the seventh inning before jogging in to take his at-bat in the bottom half. After reaching on an infield single against the United States’ David Bednar, Ohtani hustled back to the bullpen to begin throwing again. Japan’s pitching options pointed toward an Ohtani finish, especially after Kyle Schwarber took Yu Darvish deep in the eighth to cut Japan’s lead to one run.
Adrenaline may have juiced Ohtani’s velocity when he entered in the ninth. He touched 101 mph with his fastball but issued a leadoff walk to Jeff McNeil, putting the tying run on base with Betts at the plate. The 2018 AL MVP chopped the second pitch he saw from Ohtani for a double play.
Betts was still stewing as history was set to unfold, with Ohtani facing Trout with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.
“I was watching it, but I was pissed I had grounded into the double play,” Betts said this week.
Arenado’s spot was two away, so he stood on the edge of the dugout waiting to see if his teammates could keep the inning alive.
“I had the best seat in the house, I get chills thinking about it,” Arenado said.
Ohtani’s attack plan against Trout was simple, yet direct: sweepers away to him, and don’t be afraid to challenge him with the fastball. He missed low with a first-pitch sweeper before blowing a 100 mph fastball past Trout to even the count. Two more triple-digit fastballs brought the count to 2-2 before Ohtani muscled up to finish it off. He yanked a pitch at 102 mph that brought the count full.
Ohtani went back to his best pitch. Trout swung through the sweeper.
“That last pitch he struck him out on was probably the nastiest pitch I’ve ever seen,” Arenado said.
Finally, we will get to see Part 2. Ohtani, who has since signed a record contract with the Dodgers, won a World Series and returned to pitching after a second major elbow surgery, will pitch Wednesday at Angel Stadium for the first time as a visitor. (On Tuesday, Trout declined to comment on his recollections of the at-bat this week through an Angels spokesperson. The Dodgers did not make Ohtani available to the media after it was confirmed he would be pitching against the Angels.)
Trout will occupy Ohtani’s old spot in the lineup as designated hitter.
Having them both on the field at the same time will undoubtedly stir the senses again.
“That was epic,’’ Roberts said of 2023. “I was glued in. So hopefully Shohei gets the best of him again tomorrow, but Mike’s not gonna back down.”
The Athletic’s Sam Blum and Katie Woo contributed to this story.
(Photo: Eric Espada / Getty Images)
