Shohei Ohtani pitches, slugs Angels to series victory in Texas

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Angels are falling apart physically, but Shohei Ohtani helped carry them to a victory.

Ohtani pitched six innings and broke the game open with his league-leading 22nd homer, helping the Angels to a 5-3 victory over the Texas Rangers on Thursday night.

The Angels won three of four in the series, pulling within 4½ games of the AL West-leading Rangers as they leave town. Winners of nine of their last 11 games, the Angels (39-32) are one game back of the third American League wild-card spot.

It was an especially impressive victory for the Angels because it came on the day they put shortstop Zach Neto on the injured list and saw two other infielders get injured in the first inning.

Gio Urshela had to come out of the game after he stumbled across first base when he was lunging to try to beat out a double play in the inning.

The Angels were already down an infielder because Brandon Drury was serving his one-game suspension for his run-in with an umpire from Monday.

So that meant that third baseman Anthony Rendon had to remain in the game, even though he was clearly unable to swing the bat after he was hit in the left wrist by a pitch just before Urshela got hurt.

Rendon looked at all 10 pitches he saw in the fourth and eighth, striking out both times. In between, when he came to the plate with a runner on, he tried to bunt, but still struck out when his two-strike bunt went foul.

With a patchwork lineup, the Angels managed single runs in the second, fourth and seventh innings. Chad Wallach and Mickey Moniak hit homers, and Moniak also drove in a run with a single. He drove in Jared Walsh, who had entered in Urshela’s place and doubled to snap an 0-for-25 slump.

Moniak’s tie-breaking homer in the seventh was enough to give the Angels a 3-2 lead, but then Ohtani provided some insurance in the eighth.

Ohtani crushed a drive 443 feet, dropping into the seats beyond the Angels’ bullpen in left-center. He had hit nearly identical homers on Monday and Wednesday, along with a homer to left field to give the Angels a lead on Monday.

Ohtani is now batting .301 with an OPS of 1.001, both numbers exceeding what he did offensively during his AL MVP season in 2021. He is on pace for 50 homers, which would also pass the 46 he hit in 2021.

Ohtani has not been as good on the mound lately, but on Thursday night he battled through some early trouble to give the Angels just what they needed.

He needed 30 pitches to get through the first inning, with Adolis Garcia fighting through a 10-pitch at-bat. Ohtani gave up two runs in the third when he allowed three straight two-out hits.

After that, Ohtani gave up just one more hit through six innings. Although he was at 62 pitches through three, he finished the sixth with 99.

Relievers Chris Devenski and José Soriano blanked the Rangers in the seventh and eighth. Closer Carlos Estevez, who had converted all 18 of his save attempts, then walked the bases loaded with no outs in the ninth. Jacob Webb bailed him out. Webb got two outs on pop-ups before walking in a run, but then he struck out Adolis Garcia to end it.

More to come on this story.