Angels’ bats come alive too late in 4-2 loss
Los Angeles fail to live up to prematch fireworks as they lose to Colorado
It was a night of pyrotechnic offence, the show literally stopping Coors Field and forcing everyone’s eyes skyward.
Then, unfortunately for the Angels, the game began.
Unable to duplicate the fireworks-filled batting practice of Shohei Ohtani, the Angels fell 4-2 to Colorado on Tuesday night.
“You’re disappointed when you come in and you don’t swing the bat as well as you want,” shortstop Andrelton Simmons said. “You gotta shake it off and come back tomorrow and try again.”
Playing in a National League park that doesn’t allow for a designated hitter, Ohtani didn’t start. He pinch-hit in the seventh inning, grounding out as the potential tying run with the Angels trailing 2-0.
But it was his thin-air batting practice that mesmerised the stadium as he hit baseballs into places generally considered reachable only via Uber.
Ohtani deposited multiple would-be home runs into the park’s third deck in right field, 400-who-knows-how-many feet away. Each one was marked by oohs and aahs. When Ohtani was done, he received an ovation particularly hearty given that the game was still an hour or so away from starting.
Once play commenced, the Angels were unable to figure out Jon Gray and lost at Coors Field for the first time in nine games, a streak that began in 2001, a month before Mike Trout’s 10th birthday.
Beforehand, manager Mike Scioscia talked about the importance of being productive here, noting the need to “score whatever runs are available” in a place famous for serving allyou-can-eat offence.
Then he watched his team load the bases with two outs in the first inning and fail to produce against Gray, Zack Cozart striking out on a full-count slider to end the threat.
“He made a good pitch,” Scioscia said. “But there was a lot of baseball left.”
There just weren’t many chances to come as the Angels were dominated by Gray, who continued a run of unprecedented success by Rockies starters.
The right-hander retired 11 batters in a row during one stretch and gave up only two more singles, striking out eight over seven innings.
Gray’s performance was Colorado’s ninth consecutive quality start, a franchise record.