Red Sox fans are painfully thirsty for Shohei Ohtani

Boston Red Sox fans were camping outside of Fenway Park to see Los Angeles Angels star Shohei Ohtani after Sunday’s game.

Baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani is set to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2023 season. Considering the lack of winning the Los Angeles Angels have experienced since, well, 2014, fans are envisioning Ohtani wearing their favorite team’s uniform for the foreseeable future.

So, this is season is essentially “recruiting season.”

On Sunday, Ohtani’s Angels lost 2-1 to the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. After the game, let’s just say that Red Sox fans were really interested in seeing Ohtani as he left the stadium.

Just take a look at the amount of people waiting outside of the player exits, via Bally Sports West’s Erica Weston.

Red Sox fans really wanted to meet Shohei Ohtani after Sunday game

Red Sox fans will certainly be hoping that the team will be able to sign Ohtani away from not just the Angels, but the countless other teams who are going to pursue him. They will have to hope the Red Sox won’t get outbid by another team like they were by the San Diego Padres for Xander Bogaerts.

Speaking of the Sunday game, Ohtani was the designated hitter for the team, where he went 0-for-4. It wasn’t a great day for the Angels bats, as they were only able to record four hits the entire game.

Ohtani entered his final year of arbitration, but he and the Angels were able to avoid it by agreeing to a one-year, $30 million contract for the 2023 season. That is the largest amount of money paid in a season by an arbitration-eligible player.

After Sunday, Ohtani has now recorded a .288 batting average, a .383 on-base percentage, a .500 slugging percentage, three home runs, nine RBI, nine runs scored and 15 hits. As a pitcher, Ohtani has posted a 0.47 ERA, a 0.95 WHIP, a 2-0 record, 24 strikeouts and 12 walks in 19.0 innings.

The Red Sox faithful will get one more chance to see Ohtani play at Fenway Park this year on Monday morning as part of Boston’s Patriots’ Day festivities.