This week’s Sunday Shenanigans brings us back to a week ago. April 4’s Sunday Night Baseball clash between the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Angels was a pretty standard baseball game throughout five innings. That is, if the pitcher mashing a home run while striking out seven is standard to you.
In the top of the fifth inning, chaos ensued, not only changing the score but the pitcher as well.
A Must-Watch Build-Up
The game saw the Angels start Shohei Ohtani on the mound for the first time all season. The infamous two-way player has consistently missed time with injuries since joining the league in 2018. He would deal with this afterward, as Ohtani is slated to miss his next start with a blister, but that has nothing to do with the first half of this game. Ohtani was dealing through the first four innings, allowing no runs while striking out six. In the first inning, he mashed a 451-foot, 115.2 mph home run. He didn’t struggle until the fifth when he walked two and allowed a run on a wild pitch. With two outs and runners on second and third, Yoan Moncada stepped up.
Not an Ideal Exit
Ohtani was able to strike out Moncada with a splitter darting inside. But in the next 10 seconds, everything changed. The ball got by Angels catcher Max Stassi, and it was later deemed a passed ball. As Stassi ran back to get the ball, Moncada ran towards first. The runner on third base, Adam Eaton, came home.
Stassi fired towards first baseman Jared Walsh, but the throw was short and skipped by a lunging Walsh. Moncada was safe and Eaton scored, making it a 3-2 game. But as the ball got away from Walsh, Abreu was coming from second base to score. Second baseman David Fletcher was right behind Walsh. He picked the ball up and threw it high to Ohtani, who was covering home plate. The keyword there is high, as Ohtani could not reach the sailing ball, even with his 6-foot-4 frame. Abreu slid in hard, scoring, but knocked Ohtani down in the process. At the end of the play, Moncada was at first base with two outs and the game tied at three.
The Aftermath
That would be the game for Ohtani. He had thrown 92 pitches already and did not have a strong fifth inning, so there is a good chance that manager Joe Maddon would have pulled him anyways. But in a more concerning factor, Ohtani was down. He was stuck to the ground after Abreu’s slide took out his ankle. Any injury concerns would, fortunately, be squashed by Ohtani pinch-hitting the next day.
The chaos induced by the play and the ridiculousness of the dropped third strike rule caused a mass debate.
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This did spoil the Angels’ lead, but the game wasn’t over yet. Walsh also had a great game, hitting two home runs. The second of them was a walk-off, three-run shot to finish off a 7-4 Los Angeles win.
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