Anaheim, California – Los Angeles Angels two-way player Shohei Ohtani hit his first heat of the season on Wednesday night, a three-shot explosion that briefly brought the Angels 10-7 lead 10-7 against the Seattle Mariners.
Mariners’ Kyle Seager led in three heats and Dylan Moore hit a three heats humerus to help the team recover from two late deficits.
Moore connected during the Mariners’ sixth round, and Seager led the club ahead with a sacrificial fly in the seventh inning of Seattle’s second win of the season.
“It was a fun game,” said Mariners manager Scott Servais. “Obviously we did a lot of good things in the batter’s box tonight. So much pressure on them. We really dominated the strike zone.”
Ohtani, who served as the designated hitter and batting for the Angels in their empty home stadium, was playing golf a low ball by Seattle starter Justin Dunn who crossed the wall into the right field in the fourth inning to give Los Angeles a 3-1 advantage.
“It obviously surprised me when it hit him,” said Dunn. “I was angry at myself. In a way I got away from my game plan. It wasn’t what I was trying to do.”
The day before, Ohtani recorded his first RBI of the season when he doubled in a run in the Angels’ 10-2 win over Seattle. It is now 3-for-19 with four RBI this year. He returned to his dual role of pitcher and hitter designated for the Angels this season after undergoing throwing elbow surgery in October 2018.
Brian Goodwin made it 4-1 in the fifth and added a two-shot brace that took the Angels to 7-6 in sixth place after missing a three-pointer. Seattle has risen to the front by beating the Los Angeles bullpen, which has fallen powerfully in a game with four changes of advantage.
New Angels lifters Mike Mayers, Jacob Barnes and Ryan Buchter have all struggled, making a total of seven runs, six shots and three walks with only three exits.
“Much of the bullpen has had a difficult night, and that’s what we have to solve,” said angels manager Joe Maddon. “They’ll be back very soon. We have a lot of confidence. We had what we wanted, but it didn’t work.”
Justin Upton joined the sixth place for the Angels, becoming the ninth active player with 300 humeri. The former choice no. 1 is the 149th player in baseball history to hit the mark.
“It was a special evening,” said Upton, “I absolutely wish we had got the win, but I enjoyed that moment.”
Nationals 4, Blue Jays 0 (10)
In Washington, Toronto’s Shun Yamaguchi (0-2) gave up on four throws – three earned – in extra innings and was labeled with his second loss of the season.
Adam Eaton’s base-loaded helicopter broke an unscored tie in the tenth inning in a close comedy and Asdrubal Cabrera followed with a triple three-shot as the Nationals broke a losing streak of three games.
“They got really loud,” said national manager Dave Martinez after his team’s result in the tenth was equal to what the champions of the 2019 World Series managed to put together in the previous three games put together. “They love to win – and they love to celebrate.”
The game was in the Washington baseball field, but was officially the home opener for the Blue Jays.
Toronto hit the bottom of each inning, wore its white uniforms, played its walk-up music and played “OK Blue Jays”, the traditional base of the club’s seventh stretch.
The giant blue Jays logo was shown on the scoreboard – right below the bold white letters for “Nationals Park” – during the batting tests. All the noise from the crowd from the loudspeakers offered “applause” when Toronto did something good.
Except this game was played almost 500 miles – approximately 775 kilometers – south of Toronto’s Rogers Center, which is banned because the Canadian government did not want the teams to travel in and out of the United States.
The Blue Jays will use a minor league baseball field in Buffalo, but which is still being updated to host main league games.
Dodgers 4, Astros 2 (13)
In Houston, Dodgers and Astros showed no repercussions from a frenzy of the door opener that led to suspensions, and Edwin Rios hit a two-stroke humerus in the 13th inning to lift Los Angeles over Houston.
No shot was thrown over or behind a batter, no one made ugly faces and all remained in their respective refuges.
The loudest noise was Rios’ club crack when he took Cy Sneed (0-1) deep for a homer leadoff – a two-lap record under the new extra-innings rule that starts with an automatic racer on the second basis.
Yankees 9, Orioles 3
In Baltimore, New York intervened for Miami and ruined the Orioles’ home opener, hitting three home runs against right-back Gerrit Cole.
Baltimore was originally supposed to launch the home portion of the shortened 60-game schedule against Miami, but the Marlins were ordered to take a break after several players and coaches contracted COVID-19 over the weekend.
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