Angels vs. Red Sox Monday probable pitchers, odds: Shohei Ohtani's first start of week on mound comes on Patriots' Day morning
Los Angeles Angels dual-threat star Shohei Ohtani gets to add another first to his American resume on Monday morning: a Patriots' Day start in Boston. The Angels close their four-game series at Fenway Park in a morning matinee, coinciding with the Boston Marathon. The Angels are -160 at Caesars Sportsbook with an 11:10 a.m. ET first pitch.
When the Red Sox returned home last Thursday night from Florida after a lopsided four-game sweep, Alex Cora's hot seat was a popular topic on Boston area sports talk radio. Yet the Sox are now back to 8-8 as they try for the four game sweep of Los Angeles.
AL Rookie of the Year candidate Masataka Yoshida returned to the Boston lineup as the DH Sunday after missing the previous four games with hamstring tightness and was 0-2. Ohtani had his 36-game on-base streak halted in Sunday's loss; it had been the longest in MLB and tied for the third-longest in franchise history. Orlando Cabrera holds the Angels record of 63 straight games in 2006.
Ohtani (2-0, 0.47 ERA) was on the mound last Tuesday vs. Washington and allowed just one hit with six strikeouts over seven, although he did walk five. He has now allowed two or fewer runs in 10 consecutive pitching starts, which broke Nolan Ryan's franchise record of nine in a row across the 1972-73 seasons. Ohtani is 3-1 with a 2.35 ERA across 23 career innings vs. the Red Sox. He is set at over/under 6.5 strikeouts, 18.5 outs recorded and -105 for a win.
Last May while pitching at Fenway for the first time, Ohtani struck out 11 in seven shutout innings and added two hits, including a 109 mph line drive that banged off the Green Monster so hard that it knocked his No. 17 out of the pitcher's slot on the manual scoreboard.
The Sox counter with Bryan Bello in his season debut. The right-hander threw 81 pitches of one-run ball in his final minor league rehab start at Triple-A Worcester on Tuesday. Bello was 2-8 with a 4.71 ERA in 57.1 innings last year of the Sox as a rookie. He entered the 2022 season as the organization's highest-rated pitching prospect in over a decade. Note that Mike Trout is not in the Angels lineup.
Get more out of your SportsLine subscription!
Qualifying SportsLine members receive a 30-day free trial of Paramount+ premium. Sync your account right here.
