Shohei Ohtani strikes out career-high 13 as Royals are shutout 5-0

Shohei Ohtani followed up his amazing offensive performance on Tuesday with an equally amazing performance on the mound on Wednesday, striking out a career-high 13 batters in a 5-0 win over the Royals to avoid a sweep.

The Royals got to Ohtani early when Whit Merrifield and Andrew Benintendi led off the game with back-to-back singles. But that would be the most the Royals would threaten all night, as Ohtani retired the next 16 hitters, and allowed just one base runner in his final seven innings. He pitched a career-high eight innings, allowing just two hits and one walk.

Royals starter Daniel Lynch matched Ohtani with goose eggs over the first four frames. But he struggled to find the strike zone (it didn’t help that the strike zone was umpired well) with five walks and five strikeouts in 4 ¹⁄₃ innings, and exited in the fifth after loading the bases on two walks and an infield single, followed by a sacrifice fly to score the only run off the lefty.

The Angels opened the game up in the seventh off lefty Amir Garrett. He walked Andrew Velasquez to open the inning, and almost got out of the inning unscathed after back-to-back strikeouts. But Luis Rengifo and David MacKinnon each drove home runs to make it 3-0, an insurmountable lead with Ohtani on the mound. Velasquez and Taylor Ward would drive home runs in the eighth off Foster Griffin to make it 5-0.

The Royals finish their road trip 5-4, and head back to Kansas City this weekend to take on the Oakland Athletics.