Ohtani provides boost in a pinch

ANGELS 7 HOUSTON 6

It began with a stare and ended with a slide.

What was supposed to be Shohei Ohtani’s first day off of the season instead gave way to his latest dramatic moment, the two-way star getting hit by a pitch and later scoring the go-ahead run in the eighth inning of the Angels’ 7-6 victory over the Houston Astros on Monday night.

After Ohtani’s first twoway major league game Sunday night — in which he hit a home run and was involved in a scary-looking home plate collision — manager Joe Maddon wanted to give his star a rest. Ohtani, however, had other ideas. He felt fine and told Maddon he wanted to play in Monday’s series opener against the Astros.

The two had a “negotiation” Sunday, as Maddon called it, chuckling, and decided Ohtani wouldn’t be the designated hitter but would be available off the bench as a pinch-hitter.

In the eighth inning, Ohtani’s moment came.

Once down 3-0 and having entered the bottom of the eighth trailing 5-3, the Angels were threatening after back-to-back singles from Albert Pujols and José Iglesias to lead off the inning. Ohtani came up next, waiting in the batter’s box as the Astros had a mound meeting with reliever Joe Smith.

On the second pitch of the at-bat, Smith plunked Ohtani with a slider in the thigh. Ohtani was OK and the hit-by-pitch didn’t seem intentional, but Ohtani glared at Smith anyway, staring icily at the righthander as he dropped his bat and walked to first base.

The inning continued. Dexter Fowler hit an RBI single. David Fletcher drove in the tying run with a fielder’s choice grounder to second. And Jared Walsh came to the plate with a chance to give the Angels the lead. Ohtani stood at third base, representing the go-ahead run.

Walsh hit a hard ground ball to first base, where the Astros’ Yuli Gurriel dived for the ball and then fired it toward the plate. With a feetfirst slide — at the same spot where he had fallen awkwardly the night before — Ohtani scored as catcher Martín Maldonado missed the catch while going for the tag.

Ohtani stood up, confirmed he was safe and then trotted back to the dugout, a sea of smiling faces awaiting him. The Angels took the lead and went on to improve to 4-1 while sending Houston (4-1) to its first loss.

Astros are heckled

There were boos, jeers, chants. Even an inflatable trash can.

“Cheat-ers! Cheat-ers!” fans at Angel Stadium rhythmically decried.

Playing in front of Southern Californian fans for the first time since their signstealing scandal became public in November 2019, the Astros were heckled Monday night by an announced crowd of 13,447 that included more than a few spectators dressed in Dodger blue.

It was nothing like the Astros probably would have received had the 2020 season been played normally. Not after some 18 months have now passed since the first public revelations about the Astros’ trash-can-banging system in 2017. Not with major league stadiums still restricted to reduced seating capacities.

But that didn’t stop the Southland fans from trying.

When the Astros’ lineup was announced before the game, boos rained down from the stands for every name — the loudest were for Carlos Correa — except Maldonado, who was playing for the Angels during that controversial 2017 season.

For many of the Astros’ at-bats, chants broke out, including “Where’s your trash can?” “You’re a cheater!” “Astros suck!” When Jose Altuve hit a foul ball in the fourth inning, the fan who retrieved it threw it back on the field.

And twice play was stopped when actual trash cans were thrown on the field, first in the sixth inning when a fan wearing a Dodgers hat tossed an inflatable trash can onto the warning track and then in the eighth when another patron plopped a real one — filled with crushed soda cans — down in right-center.

Role for Iglesias

In the season-opening series against the Chicago White Sox, Maddon summoned new closer Raisel Iglesias three times in four games but only once in a traditional ninth-inning save situation.

After earning a three-out save in Thursday’s opener, he entered the ninth inning Friday with a one-run deficit and gave up two hits and two runs in an eventual 12-8 loss. Then on Sunday, he was summoned in the eighth inning for a five-out save but committed a throwing error in the ninth that permitted the tying run to score.

Moving forward, though, don’t get used to seeing the hard-throwing right-hander in such varied roles. Maddon said the game plan is to use Iglesias for largely conventional three-out save opportunities in the ninth.

“I really want to stay away from the one-plus [innings], if possible,” Maddon said.

The White Sox series, the manager explained, presented unique circumstances.