Royals’ Vinnie Pasquantino jokes that Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani is out to get him
The Royals’ 9-5 win Saturday over the Dodgers was played before the second-largest crowd of the season at Kauffman Stadium, but fans weren’t there strictly for the home team.
Those 36,578 fans also were there to see Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, the baseball unicorn.
Ohtani is a three-time MVP who leads the National League in home runs (29), slugging percentage (.641) and OPS (1.033). Royals pitcher Seth Lugo kept Ohtani in check with two strikeouts and a flyout to center. Ohtani also struck out later in the game against Daniel Lynch IV.
But this being Ohtani, he still did something remarkable. He pitched two scoreless innings to open the game and struck out rookie Jac Caglianone. That was just part of the story.
The Royals had two on with one out in the first inning against Ohtani, who didn’t pitch last year because of an injury, but he got Vinnie Pasquantino to ground into a double play. Ohtani, who finished fourth in the Cy Young Award voting in 2022, got strike one on a 99.2 mph fastball. A 100.2 mph dart was next for strike two.
Then came a 101.7 mph pitch that led to the double play.
“I hated the at-bat,” Pasquantino said. “I grounded into a double play in the first inning. I hated it. We had him on the ropes there, and he goes fastball at the bottom, fastball low and in. ... And then he’s throwing 102. It’s like great, I guess he’s back.”
It was the fastest pitch by a Dodgers pitcher this season and the hardest one Ohtani has thrown in the majors. But he threw a 102 mph pitch in the World Baseball Classic for Japan against Italy in 2023.
Guess who was batting that day? Pasquantino.
“Yeah, he keeps doing that to me,” Pasquantino said. “I just saw that the fastest pitches he’s ever thrown in his career, two of them, are against me, his two hardest throws. I need to talk to him. I was hoping he’d get on first today so I could ask him.
“He got me in Japan a few years ago. It was 166 kilometers (per hour). I remember looking up and being like, ‘What? I don’t even know what that is?’ Yeah, he loves throwing me fastballs, and he doesn’t throw that many fastballs.”
