Ohtani, Cobb catapult Angels to win

ANGELS 10, KANSAS CITY 3

KANSAS CITY — The ball was crushed, cracked, clobbered down the line. Had he hit it higher, who knows how far it would have flown into the night.

The Angels got plenty of help in a 10-3 win over the Kansas City Royals on Monday, scoring each of their first four runs on Royals defensive blunders and riding an electric 10-strikeout start from right-hander Alex Cobb to their seventh win in their first 10 games.

But it wasn’t until Shohei Ohtani unloaded on an elevated fastball in the seventh inning, breaking open what was a one-run game with a two-run double that smacked against the wall in right, that the Angels finally began to pull away.

“Did you see that right there?” manager Joe Maddon asked his bench coach, Mike Gallego, as the two runs crossed the plate. “It’s impressive. He’s an impressive athlete.”

On the third pitch of his two-out at-bat, Ohtani took the kind of powerful cut that is coming to define his early-season tear. He planted his right heel in the dirt. He swung his hips almost 180 degrees. And he leaned all the way into a pitch over the inner half of the plate.

The line drive left his barrel like a rocket, recording a 119-mph exit velocity that marked the best of his career and the hardest by any MLB player since last July.

“My lower body is there, feeling strong,” Ohtani said through his interpreter. “That’s the biggest difference from last year. If it was last year, I probably wouldn’t have been able to pull that ball that hard.”

After hitting below .200 in 2020, Ohtani on Monday improved his batting average to .333, his onbase-plus-slugging to 1.109 and took the team lead with 11 RBIs.

“He is absolutely engaged,” Maddon said. “He’s feeling pretty good about himself.”

Here are three other observations from Monday night.

Cobb delivers

For only the eighth time in his career, Cobb recorded double-digit strikeouts in his winning effort. Most of them came courtesy of a hard-biting splitter, which Cobb threw 52 times to induce 16 swings and misses.

“It’s really a fun pitch to have when it’s working,” Cobb said.

After mowing through the Royals over the first five innings, Cobb was finally forced to work in the sixth. The Royals strung together a double, walk and RBI single with one out to get on the board.

Cobb got the second out of the inning, but was then replaced after having already thrown 32 pitches in the frame. Reliever Steve Cishek entered the game and surrendered a two-run single in his first at-bat — runs that were charged to Cobb — but then retired the side with the lead intact.

In his first two starts with the Angels, Cobb has 17 strikeouts in just112⁄3 innings.

Rendon to IL

Angels third baseman Anthony Rendon was placed on the 10-day injured list because of a left groin strain. Maddon said he hoped Rendon would be out only 10 days but didn’t have an exact timeline.

The Angels recalled infielder Jack Mayfield, but Maddon said rookie José Rojas would get most of the playing time at third base. Rojas went 0 for 5 Monday and is still waiting on his first big league hit.

Injury updates

Before Monday’s game, Ohtani threw a light 10-pitch bullpen session as he continues to nurse a blister that has delayed his second pitching start of the season … Outfielder Juan Lagares was a late scratch with left calf tightness and is day to day ... Catcher Max Stassi exited the game in the middle of the sixth inning with left thumb irritation but said a postgame X-ray was negative.