Clayton Kershaw and Shohei Ohtani squared off against each other in a spring training game in Tempe on Wednesday, and that led to an interesting quote.
In the bottom of the third inning, Kershaw faced Ohtani and struck out the Angels rookie looking on a 2-2 curveball on the corner.
#Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw (@MLB's No. 4 overall prospect in 2008) freezes #Angels' Shohei Ohtani (2018 No. 1 overall prospect). https://t.co/TuTZgd5PTS pic.twitter.com/wtGzorMgob
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) March 7, 2018
After his appearance, Kershaw was asked about striking out the Japanese phenom. Based on his dismissive response, Kershaw seems chapped that Ohtani chose the Angels over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Clayton Kershaw on his curveball to strike out Ohtani: "it's a curveball, you know."
Nothing exciting about it? "I could care less now. He didn't pick us, so, you know, good luck to him."
— J.P. Hoornstra (@jphoornstra) March 7, 2018
Things may be extra personal between them because Kershaw tried to sway Ohtani to choose the Dodgers when he was making his decision.
There is more to the story too as Ohtani had previously mentioned Kershaw as a player he was excited to face in MLB.
“Just thinking about facing [Kershaw] makes me really happy and excited. I could just tell he’s such a great pitcher through the TV screen,” Ohtani said to CBS.
Maybe the dream of facing Kershaw is a lot different from the reality, as he learned on Wednesday.
