Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman and Carlos Correa recorded three-hit games as the Houston Astros roughed up Los Angeles Angels ace right-hander Shohei Ohtani in their 10-5 home victory on Friday.
The Astros saddled Ohtani (9-2), the American League Most Valuable Player front-runner, with his first loss since May 28, a span of 13 starts and eight consecutive winning decisions. They erased a two-run deficit by plating three runs in the third inning before chasing Ohtani with a six-run fourth that featured 11 batters coming to the plate.
Bregman, Yordan Alvarez and Correa produced run-scoring, two-out hits in the third to push the Astros to a 3-2 lead. When Ohtani retook the mound in the fourth, he had a one-run advantage that vanished in the span of four batters, with Altuve plating Aledmys Diaz with an RBI single.
Altuve was the final batter Ohtani faced but he departed with two runners on base, both of whom scored when Bregman ripped a double to left field off Angels reliever Andrew Wantz.
Ohtani allowed six runs on a season-high nine hits and no walks with just one strikeout over 3⅓ innings. In his prior appearance against the Astros on May 11, Ohtani surrendered one run on four hits and one walk while striking out 10 batters over seven innings.
Bregman gave Houston a 6-4 lead with his double and the onslaught concluded when Diaz delivered a bases-loaded single that drove in Alvarez and Correa and extended the lead to 9-4.
Altuve finished 3-for-4 and scored three runs while Bregman went 3-for-4 with four RBIs. Correa went 3-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored as the Astros banged out 16 hits, just three for extra bases.
Astros left-hander Framber Valdez (10-5) labored but lasted the requisite five innings to nab the victory. He surrendered solo home runs to Ohtani in the first inning and Jared Walsh in the second, his first homers allowed to left-handed batters this season. Ohtani smacked his league-leading 44th home run to right field; Walsh bashed his 26th home run to right-center.
Alvarez, Correa and Chas McCormick committed errors behind Valdez in the fifth, yet Valdez escaped that inning allowing only one run and departed with a four-run lead. He completed five innings with six hits, five runs (four earned), five walks and six strikeouts on his ledger.
In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.
By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.