Ohtani’s Fenway masterpiece had plenty of admirers

BOSTON — Shohei Ohtani’s anticipated start at Fenway Park on Thursday was as good as advertised, plus some more.

He carved up the Red Sox for 11 strikeouts in seven innings. He challenged them with fastballs that topped 100 miles per hour.

Fooled them with sliders out the zone. Froze them with splitters over the plate.

He clinched his hands into a fist and roared with excitement after key strikeouts. And he had two hits on the day, each off the wall.

“I hope people understand how unusual this is,” Angels manager Joe Maddonsaidafterhisteam’s 8-0 victory. “And please, never take it for granted.”

Ohtani undressed the Sox with different approaches. Xander Bogaerts, for instance, struck out twice on three pitches. In his first at-bat, he saw three sliders and swung through all three. After a single in the third, Bogaerts saw a curveball and two more sliders, and whiffed at all of those too.

“He’s the best player in the league,” said Rich Hill, who tossed five scoreless frames of his own. “I think that’s one thing everybody can pretty much unanimously agree upon. It’s pretty special to see somebody like that come along. I think everybody should be really appreciating what we’re seeing because it’s something we haven’t seen in 100 years and we may never see it again for another 100 years. He’s obviously an incredible talent and threw the ball great today for his first start at Fenway and obviously hit the ball well too.”

Trevor Story couldn’t catch up to Ohtani’s fastball, seeing 10, swinging at seven, and not putting a single one in play as he struck out four times. The third ignited slight boos from the Fenway crowd that got more pronounced after the fourth.

A key matchup that pretty much summed up Ohtani’s day came in the fifth with Rafael Devers.

With Jackie Bradley Jr. on second after a leadoff double, Ohtani went upstairs at 100.3 mph for a ball — his fastest of the day. Devers fouled off a 99-mph heater, then fell behind as he chased a curveball in the dirt, landing on one knee. He fouled off a 99.6-mph heater, then got caught looking at a splitter on the inner part of the plate.

Sox can’t quit on Matt Barnes:

The Red Sox aren’t giving up on Matt Barnes, whose ERA is 8.64 after he gave up four runs (three earned) in the 10th-inning of Wednesday’s loss, the loudest on Taylor Ward’s two-run home run. In 33 appearances since last July 10, he has a 6.92 ERA, more than double the 2.68 he had before it last season. His fastball velocity, north of 95 mph on average most of his career, has been down to as low as 92 since spring training. “People go through slumps, and we can talk about last year, but if you see the numbers, he wasn’t horrible,” Cora said. “He’s not the Barnes we know right now. We all know that. We see it when he goes out there. He was throwing 95 in Toronto, then 93. Wednesday was 92, but we have to keep working. We can’t give up on him. He’s very important to what we’re trying to accomplish.” ... Kiké Hernández was out of the lineup Thursday due to an illness. The team hoped it wasn’t Covid-related, and said he was doing better after the game.