Shohei Ohtani matches Babe Ruth milestone as Angels rally to beat Cardinals
Mike Trout and Jake Lamb hit solo homers in the ninth inning, Shohei Ohtani tied a career-high with 13 strikeouts and the Angels rallied to beat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-4 on Wednesday night.
The Angels have won six of eight, while the Cardinals have lost five in a row.
Ohtani didn’t get the decision but did become the second player in history to record 500 strikeouts and hit at least 100 home runs, joining Babe Ruth.
Philadelphia’s Brandon Marsh, who had a woeful season for the Angels in 2022, is among the league leaders in many offensive categories this season.
Ohtani gave up four runs on five hits in five innings and got tagged for two homers for the second straight start. He gave up five earned runs in an 8-5 win over Oakland on April 27.
“I wanted to get through six or seven innings, minimum,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “More than the strikeouts, I’m more disappointed that I didn’t get that far in the game.”
Ohtani recorded his last seven outs via strikeout.
“He was good,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said. “There are some good hitters over there.”
Ohtani went three for five and drove in a run, extending his hitting streak to a season-high seven games.
Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe has been diagnosed with a torn labrum in his left shoulder and will have surgery to repair the injury this week.
The Angels trailed 4-3 heading into the ninth before Lamb launched his second homer of the season to right-center off Giovanny Gallegos (1-1), tying the game. With one out, Trout hit his eighth home run of the season to left. Anthony Rendon added an RBI hit.
Trout was extra exuberant after the blast, pounding Nevin with an aggressive high-five at the dugout.
“I might have a broken finger right now,” Nevin joked. “He came in swinging at everybody.”
Trout recorded his fifth career go-ahead homer in the ninth inning or later.
“I was pumped,” Trout said. “I’ve been battling, I’ve been grinding.”
Lamb got the rally started with the fifth pinch-hit home run of his career.
“We’ve got a good team,” Lamb said. “We’ve got the pitchers, we’ve got the hitters. It says something that we haven’t quite put it all together. We’re still playing pretty good baseball. I look at that as a positive. We can only get better.”
Brandon Drury also homered for the Angels. Ryan Tepera (2-1) earned the win and Carlos Estevez picked up his seventh save.
Dylan Carlson and Nolan Gorman homered for St. Louis, which at 10-21 is off to its worst start since the 1973 squad opened the season 8-23.
Carlson put the Cardinals ahead 4-3 with a two-run homer that capped a three-run outburst in the fourth inning. It was his first homer of the season. Nolan Arenado and Willson Contreras opened the inning with back-to-back doubles.
Gorman gave the Cardinals a 1-0 lead with his seventh homer of the season in the first. Drury tied the game with his sixth homer of the season in the second inning.
St. Louis starter Miles Mikolas allowed three runs on eight hits over 5-2/3 innings.
“It’s a big punch in the gut,” Mikolas said. “I think this is going to [be] a wake-up call.”
Angels shortstop Zach Neto was removed from the game in the fifth inning with a right finger contusion. He is considered day to day.
Angels right-hander Griffin Canning (1-0, 4.11) will face Cardinals right-hander Jack Flaherty (2-3, 3.94) in the final game of the three-game set Thursday afternoon. Canning, who missed last season with lower back issues, allowed three earned runs on four hits over five innings in a 5-3 win over Oakland on April 25. It was his first win since July 2, 2021. Flaherty is making his first career start against the Angels.
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