Red Sox Notes: Besting Shohei Ohtani Highlights Nick Pivetta’s Stellar Outing

Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani is one of the more intimidating hitters to step into the batter’s box in all of MLB with his ability to go deep at any moment.

But that didn’t faze Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Nick Pivetta one bit Friday night.

Pivetta didn’t back down to Ohtani and instead came right after the two-time American League MVP. And with that approach, the results went heavily in Pivetta’s favor.

Pivetta struck Ohtani out all three times they squared off as part of a stellar performance from the Red Sox right-hander in which he tossed six scoreless innings and allowed two hits and one walk while striking out eight.

“You play this game to play the best at all times and he’s one of the best, if not the best,” Pivetta told reporters following Boston’s 4-1 loss at Dodger Stadium, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “So, I enjoy matchups like that and enjoy times like that. It’s just what I live for.”

According to The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier, Pivetta became just the second pitcher this season to strikeout Ohtani three times in one game, joining Aaron Civale.

Pivetta didn’t have any time to settle into his outing with Ohtani, and his National League-leading 29 home runs, serving as the Dodgers’ leadoff hitter. But Pivetta battled back from a 2-1 count to set down the left-handed slugger for his first out of the night.

The 31-year-old hurler found success against Ohtani at the top of the zone. All three of Pivetta’s strikeouts in the matchup came with him climbing the ladder, twice with a mid-90s fastball and a cutter on the other occasion.

“Just get ahead of him and just allow myself to kind of get in advantageous counts and just see kind of where it plays,” Pivetta said. “I was able to execute the pitches at the right time.”

The terrific showing continued a dominant month for Pivetta. He now owns a 1.83 ERA and 0.71 WHIP while holding opponents to a .134 batting average across 19 2/3 innings.

The righty finished his outing at 90 pitches, and since he hadn’t pitched in over a week due to the All-Star break, it looked like he had more left in the tank. But Red Sox manager Alex Cora felt he had already done enough.

“Outstanding,” Cora told reporters of Pivetta’s outing, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “Reese (McGuire) did an outstanding job with him tonight, mixing up the pitches, fastball up, the sweeper, the cutter. Obviously, that’s a pretty good lineup. Ninety-something pitches, that was good enough right there. Gave us a chance to win.”

Here are more notes from Friday’s Red Sox-Dodgers game:

— Brennan Bernardino shouldered responsibility for the loss after giving up an eighth-inning grand slam to Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman. He faced three batters — Ohtani, Will Smith and Freeman — and they all reached base. Smith got on via an intentional walk.

“This is big for me. Back home LA, got a lot of family here and couldn’t have gone worse,” Bernardino told reporters, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “Let the team down tonight. But tomorrow’s a new day, get back at it and do my job.”

— The back of the Red Sox bullpen is thin at the moment and it showed in the loss. Cora tried to stretch two innings out of Zack Kelly and used Bernardino against some of the best hitters in the games. Cora was somewhat forced into that with usual set-up options in Justin Slaten and Chris Martin currently on the injured list.

“We’re going to be fine,” Cora said. “We’re not going to make excuses. We’re going to keep moving forward and we’re going to trust the guys that we have.”

— The Red Sox could have gave their bullpen more room for error, but Boston went 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position.

— Cora went 1-1 on challenges in the contest. The one he lost came in the top of the eighth inning when Tyler O’Neill was doubled up off first base on a short fly ball to left field from Rafael Devers. Cora said O’Neill admitted fault for the baserunning blunder.

“He came up to me. That’s on him,” Cora said. “He looked back and he thought they weren’t going to throw behind him and they did.”

— The Red Sox try to bounce back Saturday against the Dodgers in the national spotlight. First pitch from Dodger Stadium is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. ET. The game airs on FOX.