Friday 4th April, 1969 – Chicago American Giants @ Cleveland Buckeyes
7.05pm ET, Buckeyes Ballpark, Cleveland OH
Shohei Ohtani (0-0, 0.00) v Yovani Gallardo (0-0, 0.00)
No way I was going to pass up on an Opening Day matchup between two of the league's new young guns making their EL debuts.
Both sides will be looking to improve on disappointing 1968 seasons, and keen to see if their 1st Round picks (Ohtani 9th overall; Gallardo 13th) are set to help in this regard. Entering the new season, you'd have to think the AGs are slightly further along that curve than their opponents tonight.
Here's how the two teams line up:
Let's go - PLAY BALL!
After each pitcher gets a scoreless 1st, Gallardo serves up a juicy gopher ball to Damian Jackson in the home 2nd that lands in the LF bleachers to give the Buckeyes the lead.
This remains the only base hit until there are two out in the bottom 5th, when Cesar Hernandez walks and Leonys Martin triples him all the way home. 2-0 Cleveland.
Excitement mounts as Shotime works a no-no into the 6th and actually looks to be getting stronger, then deflates entirely when he gives up a two-out double to Gregory Polanco and then an RBI single to Jose Abreu. A 2-run bomb by Karim Garcia completely upsets the apple cart.
Rookies...
The hosts rally immediately, tying the game at 3 in the home half on a single by Jon Nunnally and regaining the lead on a SF by catcher Raymond Taylor.
Ohtani gives up a leadoff double in the 7th to Neifi Perez but holds his nerve and gets out of the inning unscathed.
(Apologies for the crappy camera angle, I'll have to fix that...)
A leadoff single to Jerry Hairston jr in the 8th ends Shotime's night, with southpaw Felix Heredia on in relief. He is greeted by a Mark Davis single and then the wheels kind of come off for the Buckeyes. Jose Abreu whacks a crisp single to RF and Nunnally's errant throw not only scores the tying run but puts two more in scoring position with still none out. He gets Garcia to fly out to shallow LF but Ji-man Choi gives the AGs the lead with a SF.
Juan Sosa leads off the bottom 8th with an infield hit, prompting Chicago skipper Ryan McCharen to go to the pen, with Hisanori Takahashi getting the call. He obliges by shutting down the rally.
Bottom of the 9th, still 5-4 Chicago. A one-out single by Jon Nunnally puts the tying run aboard for the Buckeyes. A fielder's choice gets the second out and keeps that run at first, and then Ed Steele flies out to right to give the visitors the hard-fought win.
So a no-decision for Shohei while Yovani gets his first win in the bigs, with their line scores very similar indeed. Most likely by dint of his 9 strikeouts, Ohtani wins the PotG. At the plate, hitting in the 3 slot, he goes 0-for-3 with one strikeout.
Plenty of positives to be taken out for both sides, but in the end the AGs just had too much firepower.