Ohtani drives in eight, but Angels fall
He hits two three-run homers as part of his career-best RBI total, but pitchers struggle.
KANSAS CITY 12 ANGELS 11 (11 INN.)
This was the offense the Angels have been seeking. But it wasn’t enough to overcome a gassed bullpen’s struggles.
Starter Reid Detmers did not have his best outing Tuesday night against the Kansas City Royals at Angel Stadiun. Neither did some of the Angels’ relievers. Despite slugger Shohei Ohtani tying the score in the ninth inning with his second threerun homer of the game and finishing with a career-best eight RBIs, the Angels lost 12-11 in 11 innings.
Ohtani was in a threefor-19 slump without an extra-base hit or an RBI entering Tuesday’s game. In the ninth inning, he squared up Royals reliever Scott Barlow’s 78.6-mph curveball and sent it over the right-field fence.
The blast tied the score with one out in the ninth.
But in the 11th inning, reliever José Quijada gave up an RBI double to Whit Merrifield and an RBI single to Kyle Isbel, which allowed the Royals to go ahead comfortably enough.
Five innings earlier, with the Angels down 6-1, Ohtani walked to the plate to the usual home cheers, with Taylor Ward and Mike Trout on base after walking.
Ohtani worked a full count against Royals starter Jonathan Heasley. Then came the sixth pitch, a 92.3mph four-seam fastball down the middle. Ohtani hit it deep over the center-field wall.
The Angels pulled to within one run that inning after Jared Walsh — who hit a solo home run in the fourth — followed with a double, eventually getting driven in by Max Stassi’s single.
The momentum continued in the seventh after the Royals added another run, this time off reliever Andrew Wantz. The Angels tied the score at 7 after Ohtani’s sacrifice fly and Walsh’s triple.
Angels relievers Aaron Loup and Jimmy Herget gave up a combined three runs in the eighth and ninth innings before Ohtani’s blast in the ninth tied the score.
Ohtani’s eight RBIs on Tuesday were two shy of the franchise record of 10 set by Garret Anderson against the New York Yankees on Aug. 21, 2007.
Detmers’ start was erratic.
In five innings, he gave up five runs, five hits and two walks. He struck out six.
Angels glad baseball slickness addressed
The Angels haven’t forgotten about the particularly slick baseballs they struggled with during their recent five-game series in Seattle.
Their complaints apparently haven’t gone unnoticed by Major League Baseball.
MLB sent a memo Tuesday to all 30 of its clubs stating one uniform rule on how balls, especially new ones, should be muddied and stored to help prevent them from being too slick, according to multiple reports.
“The baseballs need to be the same,” Angels pitcher Michael Lorenzen said before Tuesday’s game. “We can’t get a baseball and be caught off guard with how it feels. It shouldn’t be that way, and it seems to happen quite a bit. I’m glad they’re doing something.
“For me, it’s just a shame that it takes someone getting hit in the head for them to come out with a memo like that,” the right-hander said after being told about the memo without having read it for himself.
During the fifth inning of the Angels’ game against the Mariners on Friday night, Lorenzen hit former Angel Justin Upton in the head with a ball that he said slipped out of his hand.
He wasn’t the only one frustrated.
The previous night, Angels reliever Ryan Tepera stopped during his eighthinning appearance to examine the baseballs that plate umpire David Arrieta was carrying, tossing two to the side because he wasn’t comfortable with them.
“Obviously, there was a problem in Seattle with the balls, and it’s just unacceptable,” Tepera said after being told about the memo. “They were pearls. They were brand new balls out of a dozen. There was no mud on them at all.
“We, as pitchers, throw baseballs every single day. So we know what a good ball feels like, and those balls were not anywhere up to par.”