Mike Trout on Tuesday could not play on his 27th birthday, thanks to a sore right wrist.
However, Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Angels made sure the fans in the giveaway T-shirts bearing Trout’s uniform No. 27 still went home in a celebratory mood.
Ohtani hit a three-run homer during a seven-run first inning as the Angels pounded out 13 hits in an 11-5 victory over the Detroit Tigers.
Photo: AFP
Trout missed his sixth consecutive game with an injury that will sideline him at least until tomorrow during the second-longest injury absence of his career — but for one night, his teammates did not miss the two-time American League Most Valuable Player’s peerless bat at the Big A.
Rookie catcher Francisco Arcia had a two-run single in their first-inning outburst after Detroit scored two runs in their half of the first.
“You like to get right back into the game after you give up a few early, and we carried some momentum there in the first,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “Shohei’s homer was a huge hit at the time.”
With Trout sidelined, Ohtani moved up to third in the order — and he did not disappoint. His 411-foot drive to the opposite field was his third homer this month, and he added a single for his third multi-hit performance in five games.
“I may look like I’m taking easy swings in my at-bats, but I’m swinging pretty hard,” Ohtani said through a translator. “I haven’t really changed my approach. Back when I was in Japan, that was one of my strengths, going to the opposite field.”
Justin Upton later added a two-run homer during Los Angeles’ second straight win over Detroit. The Angels have not lost a home series to the Tigers since August 2009.
Jeimer Candelario hit a two-run homer in the fifth and drove in three runs as the Tigers emerged from their four-game offensive funk, but still dropped to 0-5 on their six-game California trip.
The Angels’ first eight batters reached base with six hits, an error and a walk against Jacob Turner (0-1), who lasted just one inning in his first appearance for Detroit since 2012.
Turner, a former Tigers prospect who returned on a minor league deal this season, struggled in the rotation spot opened by Mike Fiers’ trade to Oakland.
“The big thing was he threw [37] pitches, and we didn’t make some plays,” Detroit manager Ron Gardenhire said. “Believe me, it’s not all on him. He took the beating for it ... [but] we played sloppy baseball tonight.”
Detroit scored just three runs over 40 innings in the first four games of their trip, but matched that total in two innings against Andrew Heaney (7-7).
Candelario had an RBI double in the first inning, while JaCoby Jones added a run-scoring double in the second.
Upton snapped a zero-for-15 slump with an infield single in the first. The former Tigers slugger added his 22nd homer in the sixth.
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