ANAHEIM, Calif. — Shohei Ohtani went deep twice to reach 30 home runs on the season and then scored the winning run on Jared Walsh’s two-out single in the ninth inning, giving the Los Angeles Angels an 8-7 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night.
Ohtani drew a walk off Paul Fry (2-3) with one out in the ninth inning. After Anthony Rendon was caught looking for the second out, Ohtani stole second with Walsh up for his 12th stolen base of the season. Ohtani then scored on Walsh’s single to right, sliding home and beating the tag of Pedro Severino at home.
The Japanese two-way sensation is the first player in AL history to reach 30 homers and at least 10 stolen bases in the team’s first 81 games of the season according to Stats. The only NL players to have accomplished it are Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa (1998) and Albert Pujols (2009 with St. Louis).
Ohtani, who was named to the All-Star Game for the first time Thursday and was selected as the AL Player of the Month for June earlier Friday, shows no signs of slowing down. He has 13 homers in the past 15 games.
It is also the 22nd time a player has reached the 30 homer mark at the 81-game mark in a team’s season. Pujols was the last to do it in 2009 with St. Louis. The last time it happened in the AL was Jose Canseco with Tampa Bay in 1999.
Ohtani’s solo shot to right on the first pitch of the third inning was No. 29 and set an Angels record for most homers by the All-Star break. When he hit a two-run drive on a 2-1 sinker by Dillon Tate in the fourth inning to put Los Angeles up 7-6, he surpassed Babe Ruth’s 1919 mark of most round trippers by a batter with at least 10 games pitched in a season.
Rendon had three hits while José Iglesias homered and drove in a pair of runs for the Angels, who have won two straight and four of their last five. Raisel Iglesias (5-3) pitched 1 2/3 innings and helped anchor a Los Angeles bullpen that allowed only one run in 6 1/3 innings after starter Griffin Canning struggled.
Trey Mancini and Domingo Leyba homered while Anthony Santander drove in three runs for the Orioles, who had a three-game winning streak snapped.
Baltimore jumped out to a 2-0 lead on two-out solo shots in the first and second innings by Mancini and Leyba before the Angels evened it in the second when Iglesias had a two-run drive to left field.
The Orioles put up four in the third to chase Canning and go up 6-2. Austin Hays and Mancini reached on singles before Ryan Mountcastle drew a walk to load the bases. Santander followed with a three-run double to the right-field wall and scored on Severino’s double to left.
Los Angeles drew within 6-4 in the third on Ohtani’s solo shot and Max Stassi’s RBI single before taking the lead in the fourth. David Fletcher’s RBI base hit got the Angels within a run before Ohtani gave them the lead with a two-run drive to left.
Hayes’ double to left-center in the sixth scored Cedric Mullins to even it at 7.