Shohei Ohtani dazzles on mound, hammers 40th home run in LA Angels' win vs. Detroit Tigers
Detroit Tigers rookie Tarik Skubal wishes he hadn't left the ball over the plate in the first inning.
He didn't make many mistakes Wednesday at Comerica Park, but he paid for his early miscue. Ex-Tiger Justin Upton crushed Skubal's fastball over the left-center wall for a two-run blast, giving the Los Angeles Angels a 2-0 lead.
Skubal delivered another brilliant performance for the Tigers (58-64), but the home run from Upton carried the most weight in a 3-1 loss to the Angels. Los Angeles was led by starting pitcher/leadoff hitter Shohei Ohtani, who delivered eight innings of one-run ball on the mound and smacked his 40th home run this season.
Detroit has dropped three games in a row and four of its last five.
"He's an incredible, special talent," Tigers manager AJ Hinch said of Ohtani. "We got to witness it, unfortunately at the expense of us. He clearly was in charge of the game tonight. If you take the competition away and the agony of losing, it's just incredible to see what he's doing as a real big piece of why baseball is great."
Chasing 500 career home runs, Miguel Cabrera finished 1-for-4 with one single and one strikeout.
“He’s obviously one of the best hitters of all time and he’s also a great person,” Ohtani said. “I would have been OK with giving it up, and I hope he does it sooner rather than later.”
The Tigers play one more game at Comerica Park — at 1:10 p.m. Thursday — before a five-game road trip against the Toronto Blue Jays (Friday-Sunday) and St. Louis Cardinals (Tuesday-Wednesday). Cabrera is 2-for-15 (.133) with three walks, five strikeouts and one hit-by-pitch in five games since returning to Comerica Park on Friday.
Ohtani does it all
Once Skubal departed after 6⅔ innings, Ohtani received some "MVP" chants at Comerica Park for his offense.
That's because the 27-year-old drilled a 430-foot solo home run to right field in the eighth inning. He tagged a second-pitch slider from Jose Cisnero with a 110.1 mph exit velocity and sent the fans into a frenzy. His 40th homer in 2021 extended the Angels' lead to 3-1.
“At that point, I wasn’t sure I was going to pitch the ninth, so I wanted to give myself another run,” Ohtani said. “That’s big for me and the team.”
Ohtani also completed eight innings of one-run ball. The Tigers' only run came in the fifth inning, when Willi Castro hit a 365-foot solo homer to right field. But Ohtani allowed just six hits, and his opponents couldn't get many chances.
He threw 69 of 90 pitches for strikes, getting eight strikeouts without a walk.
"What he's doing on the mound and what he does at the plate is unbelievable to watch," Skubal said. "For him to do it all year long, to lead the league in home runs and have like a 2.7 ERA, it's like not real. It doesn't feel real. He's a great player."
Said Angels manager Joe Maddon: “I don’t what you can say about (Ohtani) that hasn’t been said before. He’s not going to win the Triple Crown, but he’s in the discussion for everything else. If you are a Cy Young or MVP voter, your eyes have to be wide open at this point.”
Angels closer Raisel Iglesias pitched a perfect ninth inning, striking out Jonathan Schoop and Jeimer Candelario.
Evan Petzold is a sports reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.
Contributing: Associated Press