Ohtani homers, Angels blown out THE SCORE

Maybe Joe Maddon

ANAHEIM >> jinxed it.

The Angels’ manager mentioned Tuesday in his pregame session with reporters that he was looking for a low-leverage situation in which to use Mike Mayers, his struggling righthanded reliever.

Maddon had just one problem: The Angels had been playing too many close games recently. His starting pitchers had been averaging six innings a game for the month of July, leaving his relief pitchers little room to work.

“It’s an absolutely wonderful problem to have,” Maddon said. “I’m not looking for negative blowouts.”

The solution found Maddon. The Angels lost 12-3 to the Rockies before an announced crowd of 16,115 at Angel Stadium.

Mayers got his work in. He allowed only a soft single in a scoreless eighth inning. At that point, ironically, Maddon was out of pitchers.

Veteran outfielder Adam Eaton pitched the ninth — and he

ROCKIES 12, ANGELS 3

Up next:

Rockies at Angels, 6:30p.m. today BSW

delivered a scoreless inning too, his fastball touching 90 mph. It was the first time Eaton had ever pitched in his 10 major league seasons. Judging by how the rest of the game went for the Angels’ pitching staff, it might not be the last time Eaton takes the mound.

Colorado took a 10-0 lead behind left-hander Austin Gomber (8-5). By the time Angels designated hitter Shohei Ohtani provided his daily heroics — a tworun home run in the fifth inning that traveled 463 feet — the game was well out of reach.

The home run was Ohtani’s 36th of the season, which leads the major leagues. Ohtani also struck out twice on a night when the Angels left 11 runners on base.

The top of the first inning foreshadowed what was to come when Jack Mayfield, who had never made an error in 167 major league innings at third base, made two in the inning that helped Colorado score two runs.