In March, Team USA and Team Japan faced each other in the final game of the World Baseball Classic.
It was a close game through and through, and Japan reached the ninth inning up 3-2.
They saved their best pitcher, Shohei Ohtani, for a special occasion, and he was presented with one.
The Los Angeles Angels star was called to close things out in the ninth, and passed the test with flying colors.
To complete the three outs, he had to face his teammate on the Angels and friend Mike Trout.
Prior to the game, Ohtani had urged his teammates not to admire players on the American roster.
“If you admire them, you can’t surpass them,” he famously said, and that conversation came up because Trout had sent signed balls to the Japanese clubhouse.
That at-bat between Ohtani and Trout came with two outs.
Trout, being one of the best hitters in the history of the game, worked the count to 3-2 before he whiffed on a vicious slider to end the game.
The slugger talked about that at-bat this week and discussed his strategy, via B/R Walk-Off.
Mike Trout finally talks about facing Ohtani at WBC ? pic.twitter.com/pNFzMFYbZz
— B/R Walk-Off (@BRWalkoff) June 21, 2023
The future Hall-of-Famer said that facing Ohtani was a first for him.
His mindset was: “I have to take him deep here”, suggesting that he went to the plate with a home run on his mind.
Trout also said that he and Ohtani haven’t really talked much about the at-bat.
It was March, before the season started, but it was on an international stage for the most prized trophy of all.
It was a legendary at-bat.
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