Henry Davis hits 2 of Pirates' 4 home runs off Shohei Ohtani in road loss to Angels | TribLIVE.com
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Henry Davis hits 2 of Pirates' 4 home runs off Shohei Ohtani in road loss to Angels

Justin Guerriero
| Saturday, July 22, 2023 12:15 a.m.
AP
Los Angeles Angels starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani scores off of a double hit by Mickey Moniak during the fourth inning against the Pirates on Friday.

Even with less than six full MLB seasons under his belt, there isn’t much room to deny that the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani is one of the most unique and talented players in the history of the game.

A true unicorn player who combines elite offensive abilities with a repertoire of six pitches when he’s on the mound, Ohtani’s overall skill set is arguably unmatched across baseball.

And yet, Friday night at Angel Stadium, with the Pittsburgh Pirates in town, Ohtani, pitching and batting second, looked more like a mortal man than generational talent.

While he, along with the Angels, picked up the win, 8-5, Ohtani allowed five earned runs over 6 ⅓ innings of work.

For the first time in his career, Ohtani allowed four home runs in a single game, with Henry Davis hitting two of them, both solo shots, in the fourth and sixth innings.

The 23-year old Davis, 27 games into his rookie campaign, became the first player to hit multiple homers off of Ohtani in a game.

Davis went 3 for 4 with two RBIs in the loss.

Ji Man Choi and Jack Suwinski also took Ohtani deep, with Suwinski setting a new career-high with his 20th homer of the year.

Choi and Davis hit back-to-back solo shots in the fourth for the game’s first runs.

But for all the Pirates’ (42-55) home runs, the Angels proved more than capable of matching them, as they hit four of their own, two off starter Johan Oviedo and two off Oviedo’s replacement, Jose Hernandez.

Oviedo (3-11, 4.77 ERA) took the loss, allowing five runs on three hits over four innings of work.

His first three innings were hitless, but in the fourth, a leadoff walk to Ohtani proved to be the start of Oviedo’s night unraveling.

Ohtani scored from first base after a double by Mickey Moniak, with Davis failing to field the ball cleanly off the right field wall, allowing Ohtani to advance home from third.

With Moniak on second, Oviedo then walked Taylor Ward, still with no outs.

Then, disaster struck, with Mike Moustakas blasting a three-run homer to right field, putting Los Angeles up, 4-2.

From there, Oviedo allowed a towering, 448-foot solo home run to Trey Cabbage before finally managing to get out of the inning by striking out Luis Rengifo.

“The two walks in that inning is what really killed us,” manager Derek Shelton said on the AT&T SportsNet postgame show. “ … He walked Shohei to lead off the inning, and you can’t come right back and just try to throw a first-pitch strike, because when you stay over the middle of the plate, we saw the damage (Los Angeles) can do.”

Following the game, Oviedo also viewed walking Ohtani in the fourth inning as the turning point in his start.

Friday marked the seventh time over his last eight starts in which he took the loss. The 25-year-old has not picked up a win since May 19.

“I just don’t want to give anything easy,” Oviedo said. “At the same time, it worked out in a wrong way. He was a leadoff, nobody-out walk. Then they (hit) a double, (Ohtani) scores from first, and after that, everything just fell (apart).”

By the end of the fourth, the Angels led, 5-2, but in the Pirates’ half of the fifth, they got two runs back, courtesy of Suwinski’s homer, which scored Nick Gonzales, whom Ohtani hit with a pitch.

After Oviedo left the game, Hernandez allowed three runs before being removed after pitching two-thirds of the fifth, by which time Los Angeles was up, 8-4.

Davis provided the final offensive push for the Pirates, taking Ohtani deep for an opposite-field solo shot in the sixth to trim his club’s deficit to three.

“Henry had great at-bats,” Shelton said. “We’re talking about one of, if not the best pitcher in baseball and I thought offensively, we did a really nice job against him.”

While Oviedo and Hernandez were roughed up, Dauri Moreta and Angel Perdomo both pitched 1 ⅓ scoreless innings, while at the plate, Jared Triolo upped his hitting streak to 13 games with a single in the fourth.


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