Ohtani’s ninth-inning HR a winner in Boston
BOSTON » When Shohei Ohtani launched a 97-mph fastball down the right-field line, he said he was thinking about nothing but praying that the ball would stay fair.
The ball did sail just inside the pole, for a two-run home run that the Angels desperately needed to avoid what would have been another gut-wrenching loss.
Ohtani’s two-run homer, which he said was the most significant homer of his big league career, put the Angels ahead and they held on for a 6-5 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Sunday at Fenway Park.
Ohtani became the first Angels player since Hank Conger in 2013 to hit a go-ahead homer when the team was down to its final out.
Mike Mayers then worked around two walks in the ninth to preserve the victory. He got the assignment after closer Raisel Iglesias had pitched the eighth with the Angels trailing by a run, because he hadn’t pitched in five days.
The clutch performances in the ninth helped the Angels snap a four-game losing streak and escape Boston with one victory in the three-game series. In the first two games of the series, they had blown a seventh-inning lead and gotten blown out.
“The first two games of the series the way we lost, it wasn’t a good way to lose,” Ohtani said through his interpreter. “It was huge for us to come up with this one. We showed that we could beat any team and get things rolling.”
Ohtani’s 12th homer — which tied him for the MLB lead at the time — also made Manager Joe Maddon look good for his decision to flip Ohtani and Mike Trout in the lineup. Maddon said he’d only done it because he wanted to try lefty Jose Rojas in the leadoff spot and then didn’t want to have back-to-back lefties if Ohtani hit second.
It worked out because Trout dropped a bloop single into right – snapping his 0-for-18 – right before Ohtani hit the go-ahead homer.
“Is the proper word prescient? Or just getting lucky,” Maddon said.
Up until that point, Maddon was facing the prospect of a loss in which another of his decisions would be pivotal.
He pulled starter José Quintana in the fifth inning after 74 pitches with a 4-2 lead, only to see Aaron Slegers give up a three-run homer eight pitches later.
Quintana had allowed one run in four innings, including three perfect innings. He’d thrown just 58 pitches, with six strikeouts and no walks. In the third, he escaped a jam with two on and no outs with a couple of strikeouts and a popup.
“My fastball command was really good,” Quintana said. “My confidence is way better. My command is back and I feel better.”
After he struck out Marwin Gonzalez to start the fifth, he gave up a homer to Kevin Plawecki and an infield hit to Jonathan Araúz. Maddon then pulled him. “That was tough,” Maddon said. “It was absolutely tough, but I thought Q had a great game to build off.”
Although Quintana was about to face the top of the order for the third time, he had not allowed a hit to any of Boston’s top six hitters, and he had struck out the top two in all four of their previous plate appearances.
Quintana, who was two outs shy of getting his first victory since 2019, said he didn’t expect to come out at that point.
“I was surprised,” Quintana said. “I always focus on the next batter. In the fifth inning, you want to keep rolling and give your team a chance to win. I want that W. But I don’t have any control over that. I respect his decision and the biggest thing is we won the game.”
Within the next eight pitches, Slegers gave up a single to Michael Chavis and then a three-run homer to Rafael Devers, giving the Red Sox a 5-4 lead. Slegers has allowed six runs in his last four games, recording only six outs.
Maddon pointed out that Slegers did get the ground ball he’d wanted from Chavis, but it found a hole. He then made a bad pitch to Devers.
After that, though, the Angels’ struggling bullpen got the job done. Steve Cishek entered and got a double play and pitched a perfect sixth. Newly acquired Hunter Strickland and Tony Watson worked the seventh. Iglesias pitched the eighth, and then Mayers finished it off.
The Angels finished the trip with a 2-4 record, but they could have gone 4-2 with a few things going their way on Tuesday in Houston and Friday in Boston.
“It’s the razor-thin line between being extremely successful and not,” Maddon said. “The margins are so small. We’ve got to react to take advantage when the advantage is in our favor.”