BOSTON —When Phil Nevin decided to give both Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon a day off on Monday, the Angels manager he was planning on riding Shohei Ohtani’s arm deep into the game.
Mother Nature had other ideas.
Ohtani pitched just two innings before an 85-minute rain delay ended his start, but the Angels scored enough early and the bullpen held on through seven innings for a much-needed 5-4 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Monday.
It was a welcomed bit of good news after the Angels lost three tight games to start this East Coast trip, with physical and mental mistakes throughout.
They were able to avoid a sweep, thanks largely to Hunter Renfroe’s first-inning three-run homer and five relievers hanging on for dear life. Left-hander Tucker Davidson entered and worked 3-1/3 innings, followed by relievers Aaron Loup, Matt Moore, José Quijada and Carlos Estévez.
“I think just after the past few days, we needed to win badly,” Davidson said. “For us to bear down and do it through a delay, another delay. Nobody wanted that. We really wanted to get into New York at 6 and have a night to ourselves. Go have a nice dinner. But sometimes you’ve got to deal with what you’re given and I think we did a good job of handling the adversity and just going out there and continuing to play.”
The Angels had a chance for an early arrival in New York because of the traditional Patriots’ Day 11 a.m. start time, with the Boston Marathon ongoing a mile away from Fenway Park. The early start was one of the reasons that Nevin opted to give both Trout and Rendon a day off. He also figured that, he had his best pitcher on the mound, so he could probably get by without all of his top hitters.
It still looked like it might work, even after the 56-minute rain delay that pushed the first pitch to just after noon.
Renfroe hit a three-run homer and Brandon Drury followed with a sacrifice fly, giving Ohtani a four-run lead before he threw his first pitch.
Ohtani gave up one run in two innings, even though he didn’t allow a hit. He walked the first batter of the game – as he’s done in all four of his starts – and then threw two wild pitches. Before Ohtani could take the mound in the bottom of the second, a brief but heavy rain shower pelted the field, requiring about five minutes of field maintenance.
“More than the rain and all that, it was an early game,” Ohtani said through his interpreter. “That was the hardest part.”
Ohtani then pitched a perfect inning, with two strikeouts, but he didn’t get to go back for the third.
“As much as I know he keeps himself ready to go and pitch, once it got past the 30-45-minute mark I wasn’t going to send him back out,” Nevin said.
The Angels could have simply flipped the schedule to have Ohtani pitch on Tuesday in New York if they had known this weather was coming, but Nevin said the forecast he’d seen called for “just a light mist.”
Now, they will “talk about” changing Ohtani’s upcoming schedule in light of the fact that he threw just 31 pitches. His normal next turn would be on Sunday at home against the Kansas City Royals, but he Angels might be able to move him up a day or two if they want.
Once Ohtani was done, it was up to the Angels bullpen to find its way through seven innings.
Fortunately for the Angels, they had a bullpen full of left-handed pitchers to throw at a Red Sox lineup that included six left-handed hitters. The Red Sox scored twice in the sixth, once on a two-out infield hit, but Moore, Quijada and Estévez held the two-run lead through the final three innings.
The Red Sox scored one against Estévez in the ninth and had two runners on when he got the final out on a popup.
“We made it exciting,” Nevin said. “If you’re gonna win one, do it before you get on the plane, right?”
