Michael Wacha struck out Mike Trout chasing up the ladder at 95 mph gas in the fourth inning.
Two innings later, Wacha struck out Shohei Ohtani taking a big whiff at 97 mph in the same spot.
For a guy who averages 93 mph on his fastball, Wacha sure knew when (and how) to dial it up when he needed to on Monday night.
His last pitch was arguably his best pitch of the night, a first-pitch changeup just outside the zone. Ohtani rolled it over to first base for the 27th and final out of the game, securing Wacha’s complete game shutout and the Red Sox’ 1-0 win over the Angels.
Wacha is now 4-1 with a 1.99 ERA in nine starts since signing a one-year deal worth just $7 million.
Nothing to see here folks, just another Red Sox starter getting into a white-hot streak that ranks him among the best in baseball. Nick Pivetta has been a top-10 starter in the last month. Nathan Eovaldi has dominated in three straight starts since the Astros teed off on him. Garrett Whitlock is one of the game’s brightest young pitchers. And now Wacha is healthy again and looking the best we’ve seen from him since his rookie year in 2013.
The Sox are now the only team in baseball with three complete games (Pivetta, Eovaldi, Wacha); no other team has more than one.
“That’s what I told them in the high-five line right there, ‘hey, just trying to be like you guys man, just keep feeding off each other,’” Wacha told NESN at Angel Stadium.
Bringing up the rear of the rotation, Rich Hill is probably just keeping the seat warm until Chris Sale is ready to return in a month or so, but you can do much worse than a savvy veteran like Hill in the fifth spot.
And while the Yankees’ starting staff led by Gerrit Cole and Nestor Cortes has gotten all the love this season, the Sox’ rotation isn’t far behind, with a 3.48 ERA that ranks seventh in MLB.
The last three turns through the rotation, the Sox have 2.81 ERA, third-best in that span. Only the Yankees and Dodgers have been better.
The Red Sox rotation has allowed just one earned run in the last six games spanning 39-1/3 innings. It’s the franchise’s lowest mark over any six-game span in club history.
It looks historic, it feels historic, it historic and it has teamed up with a vintage offense that has helped get the Red Sox back into contention.
Overall this season, the Sox have an offense that ranks fifth in baseball with 4.8 runs per game, a rotation that ranks seventh with a 3.48 ERA and a bullpen that ranks 15th with a 3.89 ERA.
It’s not quite Yankees-like (they’re top-five in every category), but the Red Sox aren’t far away. And for all the reasonable questions to be asked about the Sox’ bullpen, that’s really not the worst part of the roster to be a team’s biggest weakness this time of year.
So what, the bullpen is only average? With an elite rotation and an elite offense, that should be good enough, at least for the time being. Sale should return from a rib injury by early July, Brayan Bello is rapidly becoming one of the game’s best prospects and is now tearing up Triple-A hitters and there’s still a chance they get James Paxton and/or Josh Taylor back
There should be options available in a month or two, should the Sox need them. And if they have to look outside the organization, chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom will have to address it before the Aug. 2 trade deadline.
It’s often the easiest part of the roster to upgrade at the deadline, which the Sox did last July, paying very little for Hansel Robles and Austin Davis, who have been two of their better relievers since then.
In a world where major league starters can get a standing ovation for five good innings, the Sox are leading the way back to extended outings from starting pitchers again.
It makes the games more exciting to watch.
Monday’s game was brilliant. Wacha pitched a gem. Noah Syndergaard allowed just one run in six innings against him in a game that lasted just 2 hours, 32 minutes.
The game moves along quickly, every scoring opportunity is huge and the best starting pitcher wins.
That’s the kind of game the Red Sox want to be in. They’ve got the rotation to do it.
