Tuesday’s World Baseball Classic championship game ended just the way every baseball fan hoped it would—with Mike Trout facing his Angels teammate Shohei Ohtani.
After Ohtani walked leadoff hitter Jeff McNeil and got Mookie Betts to ground into a double play, Trout came to the plate with two outs in the ninth inning and the United States trailing Japan, 3–2. What Ohtani did next will be talked about for years.
His first pitch, a slider, missed low. Then he threw a 100 mph fastball in the bottom of the zone that Trout swung right through. After Ohtani missed outside for ball two, Trout whiffed on another 100 mph fastball in the heart of the zone. A pitch in the dirt brought the count to 3–2. Then, Ohtani pulled the string on a nasty slider on the outside corner that Trout had no hope of making contact with. (Seriously. It was off the charts on the traditional 20–80 scouting scale.)
