It was billed as the matchup between Shohei Ohtani and Yusei Kikuchi. That didn’t happen. Ohtani didn’t play, Kikuchi didn’t pitch well, and the game was the exact opposite of an auftaktigkeit, a word which means “a principle in music: all musical phrases begin on an upbeat.” Quite frankly, I don’t even know if I’m using the word correctly, much less how to spell it, so the fact that a grade school kid got it right on the Scripps National Spelling Bee concurrently running with this game was impressive.
Even though the game did not start on an upbeat, the Angels quickly put a charge into the action right away.