Shohei Ohtani allowed only a two-run homer while throwing a career-high 117 pitches over seven innings, and the Los Angeles Angels edged the Texas Rangers 3-2 on Friday night at Anaheim, California.
Ohtani (9-1), the AL MVP front-runner, allowed seven hits and two walks while striking out eight, but he was hurt only by Jason Martin’s tying, two-run shot in the second inning.
The Angels’ two-way star looked relatively strong back on the mound after his scheduled Tuesday start was pushed back from getting hit by a pitch on his pitching hand last weekend.
Ohtani earned the victory thanks to Max Stassi’s RBI infield single that broke a 2-2 tie in the sixth for Los Angeles (67-68), which won for the fourth time in five games.
Jared Walsh and Phil Gosselin each had two hits with an RBI and David Fletcher added two hits for the Angels. Raisel Iglesias overcame a leadoff single in the ninth to pick up his 30th save as the Angels opened the four-game set by beating Texas for a fourth consecutive time.
Nick Solak each had three hits for the Rangers (47-87), who have dropped their past three road contests. Martin finished with two hits.
After pitching five scoreless innings during his major league debut last weekend, Texas starter Glenn Otto yielded an RBI single to Gosselin in the first. Walsh followed with a jam-shot, run-scoring single to left field for a 2-0 Los Angeles edge. By the time the inning ended, Otto had thrown 37 pitches.
Texas, though, evened the game in the second. Solak extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a one-out infield single, and Martin followed with his shot into the right field seats off Ohtani.
Otto, meanwhile, settled down and left in the fifth with the game still tied at 2-2. He gave up two runs on four hits and a walk with four strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings.
With two outs in the sixth, Los Angeles’ Jo Adell singled, went to third on Brandon Marsh’s double and scored when Stassi beat out a grounder into the hole at short.
The only downside for Ohtani was going 0-for-4 at the plate, extending his batting slump to 4-for-38 (.105) over his past 11 games.
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