Belt has 21-pitch at-bat, later homers

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Brandon Belt hung in for an epic 21-pitch at-bat before flying out, but later homered to lead Johnny Cueto and the Giants past the Angels 4-2 on Sunday.

Belt saw 21 pitches in an epic plate appearance against Angels rookie right-hander Jaime Barria in the first inning, the most since records began in 1988.

The previous high of 20 pitches in a plate appearance since 1988 was when the Indians’ Bartolo Colon finally struck out the Astros’ Ricky Gutierrez on June 26, 1998.

The left-handed Belt fouled off 11 straight pitches, including two long fouls down the right-field line, before lining out to right fielder Kole Calhoun, ending an at-bat the Giants said lasted 12 minutes, 45 seconds. Belt was greeted with high-fives when he returned to the dugout.

It took nine pitches for Belt to work the count full, as he fouled off five pitches in the process. He swung and missed just once.

Angels pitching coach Charles Nagy made a mound visit after the Belt at-bat. Barria had thrown nine pitches to Joe Panik, who hit a leadoff single, before throwing 21 to Belt.

Belt singled and scored in the third and launched a leadoff homer to right against Blake Parker in the fifth. Belt saw a total of 38 pitches in his first three at-bats, then hit the first pitch his last two times up.

Cueto (2-0) allowed two hits in six shutout innings against cleanup batter Shohei Ohtani and the Angels. Cueto took a no-hitter into the sixth and struck out seven.

Ohtani threw a bullpen session about 90 minutes before batting cleanup for the first time for the Angels. He went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts and lowered his average to .333.