Shohei Ohtani on Friday hit his major league-leading 44th home run, but was tagged early by Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman and the Houston Astros in a 10-5 win over the Los Angeles Angels.
Ohtani (9-2) had been 8-0 in his last 13 starts since May 28, and gave himself a lead when he hit a solo homer in the first inning.
The two-way sensation yielded six runs on a career-high nine hits in 3-1/3 innings.
Photo: AP
“I feel like they were sitting on my cutters and sliders for the most part,” Ohtani said through a translator. “Before I could make adjustments, I had runners on base all the time, and I couldn’t really try out new things.”
Altuve and Bregman were a combined 5 for 5 against Ohtani.
“That’s not a guy you would like to face all the time,” Houston manager Dusty Baker said of Ohtani. “We were putting some good at-bats together, hit some balls hard early. It was good to get him out of the game pitching and get him out and his bat, which is as potent as his pitching is.”
Ohtani became the first American League pitcher to be intentionally walked in more than 51 years when Framber Valdez intentionally walked him to load the bases with two outs in the fourth.
The last American League pitcher to be intentionally walked was Jim Kaat of the Minnesota Twins on Sept. 1, 1970. After the walk to Ohtani, Valdez struck out Phil Gosselin to end the threat.
In Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Pirates slipped past the Washington National 4-3 to spoil Josh Bell’s return to PNC Park.
Ke’Bryan Hayes completed a two-run comeback by sending a pitch from Washington reliever Alberto Baldonado to right field, scoring Ben Gamel from third for the first walk-off hit of his career.
“I knew a single was going to win the game so I just tried to hit it low and hard,” said Hayes, a rookie third baseman who is a key part of rebuilding the Pirates.
Bell, a former second-round pick who played five seasons in Pittsburgh before being traded to Washington in December last year, hit his 26th home run of the season for the Nationals. His solo shot in the sixth gave the Nationals a two-run lead the overtaxed bullpen could not quite hold.
The Pirates and National were yesterday to meet again, when families of Flight 93 passengers would be recognized on the field with military and first responders on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The New York Yankees and New York Mets were also to pay tribute to first responders during a subway series this weekend.
Retired Mets infielder Todd Zeile on Friday talked about playing in the wake of the attacks on Sept. 21, 2001.
“We put a small Band-Aid on a big wound for a couple of hours,” he said. “To put the smiles on the faces of the people who were hurting and just make them relax for a couple hours and watch the national pastime come back, play ball, that made me feel that it was the right time to do it.”
Bobby Valentine, manager of the 2001 Mets, was to throw a ceremonial first pitch to Joe Torre, manager of the 2001 Yankees.
“We all had fear. We had fears in our hearts that one: Maybe we’d be attacked, and two: maybe we were doing the wrong thing,” Valentine said. “There was so much uncertainty and doubt.”
‘EVERYONE SAW’: The visitors were left fuming after Jules Kounde was fouled by Claudio Echeverri in the buildup to the winning goal and it went unpunished Spanish champions Barcelona on Monday fell to a damaging 2-1 defeat at Girona to leave them trailing Real Madrid by two points at the top of La Liga. Los Blancos beat Real Sociedad on Saturday to overtake the Catalans and Hansi Flick’s side could not defeat Girona in an gripping derby clash to reclaim the lead. Teenage star Lamine Yamal missed a penalty for Barcelona, who took the lead through defender Pau Cubarsi just before the hour mark. However, goals from Thomas Lemar and Fran Beltran helped Girona, 12th, mount an impressive comeback. “In the end Girona deserved it, they had a lot of
A dominant Cade Cunningham on Thursday scored 42 points as the NBA-leading Detroit Pistons swatted aside the New York Knicks 126-111 on the NBA’s return from its brief All-Star Game break. Billed as a must-watch clash between two Eastern Conference rivals each in red-hot form, the game at Madison Square Garden became an exhibition for Cunningham, who also provided 13 assists and eight rebounds. The 24-year-old burnished his credentials as a Most Valuable Player contender, helping a young, surprise-package Pistons side to improve the best record in the entire NBA this season so far, to 41-13. After the game, Cunningham said that he
Amanda Anisimova on Monday was handed a walkover into the last 16 of the Dubai Open after her opponent Barbora Krejcikova was forced to withdraw from the WTA 1000 event. The American second seed enters the round-of-16 against Janice Tjen without swinging a racket as two-time Grand Slam winner Krejcikova pulled out due to an issue with her left thigh. They became the seventh and eighth players to pull out, a list that includes the world top two Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek. Tjen booked her meeting with Anisimova thanks to a 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 win in her round-of-32 match against 2021 US
Amanda Anisimova on Thursday ended a tearful Mirra Andreeva’s Dubai title defense with a comeback 2-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7/4) victory in the quarter-finals. The second-seeded American trailed fifth seed Andreeva by a set and a break before rallying to complete a 2 hour, 38 minute win. She booked a place in the semi-finals of a WTA 1000 event for the fourth time in her career. “I was almost in tears there at the end,” Anisimova said. “It made me emotional seeing her like that. I feel we both won today.” Anisimova was to face fellow American Jessica Pegula, who beat Denmark’s Clara Tauson 6-3,
RSS