Ohtani strikes out career-high 13 in win
ANAHEIM: Shohei Ohtani threw eight scoreless innings, allowed just two hits and struck out a career-high 13 to lead the Los Angeles Angels to a 5-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night in Anaheim, California.
The performance came one night after Ohtani homered twice and drove in eight runs.
Ohtani (6-4) gave up back-to-back singles to Whit Merrifield and Andrew Benintendi to begin the game but did not allow another hit the rest of the way, retiring the next 16 batters in a row. The only Royals batter to reach base after the first inning was Merrifield, who walked in the sixth but was erased on a double-play grounder. In all, Ohtani made a season-high 108 pitches.
At the plate, Ohtani went 1-for-3 with two walks.
Royals starter Daniel Lynch (3-7) matched Ohtani zero for zero through four innings. But in the fifth, the Angels pushed across a run.
Alex Bregman and Yordan Alvarez hit back-to-back homers to cap a fourrun first inning and vault hosts Houston past New York 5-3, and a sweep of the two-game interleague series.
Alvarez finished with two homers for the Astros, who have won three straight and seven of nine. It was the fourth two-homer game of the season for Alvarez. The Astros scored all of their first-inning runs before Carlos Carrasco (8-3) recorded an out. The Mets were swept in a series for the first time this season. Carrasco allowed the five runs on four hits and two walks, with two strikeouts in 2 1/3 innings.
Jose Trevino smashed an eighthinning, two-run homer as New York rallied past Tampa Bay 5-4 in Florida. Aaron Judge went deep twice for the Yankees. Clarke Schmidt (4-2) tossed a scoreless seventh, and Clay Holmes was perfect in the ninth for his 12th save.
Tampa Bay’s Isaac Paredes notched his fourth homer in two games, and Vidal Brujan homered and drove in three runs. Reliever Ralph Garza Jr. (0-2) served up Trevino’s winning homer. REUTERS
RESULTS (home team in CAPS)
Toronto 9 CHICAGO WHITE SOX 5; HOUSTON 5 NY Mets 3; TEXAS 4 Philadelphia 2; SAN DIEGO 10 Arizona 4; LA Dodgers 8 CINCINNATI 4; MIAMI 7 Colorado 4; BALTIMORE 7 Washington 0; Chicago Cubs 14 PITTSBURGH 5; BOSTON 6 Detroit 2; NY Yankees 5 TAMPA BAY 4; ATLANTA 4 San Francisco 3; Cleveland 11 MINNESOTA 10; St Louis 5 MILWAUKEE 4; Seattle 9 OAKLAND 0; LA ANGELS 5 Kansas City 0