Angels smash 7 solo homers to tie MLB record, lose to Athletics

Content of the article

ANAHEIM, Calif. — In a season that turned into a titanic struggle for the Los Angeles Angels, they suffered another painful loss on Thursday.

The Halos tied a major league record with seven solo home runs, including two by Shohei Ohtani, but still lost to the Oakland Athletics 8-7 on a wild morning at Angel Stadium.

The Angels are the first major league team to hit seven solo homers and score no other runs in a game. They are also the sixth team to hit seven homers and lose, according to STATS.

Content of the article

“I guess they always say solo home runs don’t beat you, but you feel like if you hit seven, you might. It didn’t work for us,” Angels interim manager Phil Nevin said.

Los Angeles was 24-13 and tied with Houston for the AL West lead after beating Oakland on May 15. Since then, the Angels have gone 20-48 and are 17 games under .500 at 44-61.

Content of the article

The tailspin included a 14-game losing streak, the firing of Joe Maddon on June 7, an eighth-inning four-run lead at Philadelphia on June 5, and a savage brawl against the Seattle Mariners on June 26. .

Ramon Laureano homered and drove in four runs, and Seth Brown hit a two-run shot in a six-run third inning for Oakland, the AL’s worst. Sean Murphy also had two runs for the Athletics, which have won the last two games of the series and won six of their last nine.

« Today was a little different baseball game than I’ve probably been in. It’s a very interesting boxscore, » Oakland manager Mark Kotsay said. « I’m glad our eight held out and we were able to get the win.

“The goal is to win the game and score more points. Solo home runs at the end of the day are nice, but they don’t necessarily always help you win games.

Content of the article

Paul Blackburn (7-6) earned his first win since June 16 despite four homers on six hits.

« It was one of those days when any ball hitting the air seemed to be out, » said Blackburn, who went five innings and struck out three. « I’ve never seen anything like it, but I’ll get a series win any day now. »

Ohtani sat out of Wednesday night’s game with a left forearm cramp, but rebounded with three hits and two RBIs. It was his 11th multihomer game in the majors and his fifth this season.

Mickey Moniak — acquired from Philadelphia on Tuesday in Noah Syndergaard’s trade — homered right with one out in the ninth to put the Angels in a run. Max Stassi tied but Taylor Ward retired and AJ Puk blew Ohtani short on the first pitch for his third save.

Content of the article

Kurt Suzuki, Taylor Ward, Jo Adell and Jared Walsh also went deep for the Angels, who went 2-5 on their home turf. All seven circuits also tied an overall franchise record.

“It’s obviously a positive thing. I would have liked to get the win, but you know, offensively, we had to pick up a bit. So that was a positive sign,” Ward said, referring to the Angels batting .199 as a team in July.

The Los Angeles Dodgers were the last team to hit seven solo homers on June 24, 2018 against the New York Mets.

Los Angeles led 2-0 after two innings on shots from Ohtani and Suzuki before Oakland opened it in the third against Halos starter Janson Junk (1-1).

The Athletics sent 11 home plates in the inning and scored six runs. Laureano tied it at 2 on a one-out brace with the bases loaded before Murphy’s brace into the left center gap gave them the lead. Brown then chased Junk down by driving a first-pitch curveball into the elevated seats at center right to make it 6-2.

Content of the article

Junk pitched five scoreless innings in his last start on July 27 at Kansas City. The right-hander didn’t have the same success this time, with six runs allowed on five hits and two strikeouts.

“I think everyone started to focus on what they wanted to do in their area. He was throwing a lot of breaking balls and this team threw a lot of breaking balls this series,” Brown said. « It was everyone locking themselves in whatever pitch they wanted. »

Laureano extended Oakland’s lead to 8-3 in the fourth when he connected on an elevated lead from Touki Toussaint for a two-run homer down the center.

Walsh went deep in the sixth and Ohtani in the seventh to make it 8-6.

ONE BY ONE

Solo shots from Ward and Adell in the third and fourth innings made it only the second time in franchise history that the Angels had success in each of the first four innings. The last time that happened was on August 19, 2017, in Baltimore when Mike Trout went deep in first and third and Luis Valbuena did it in second and fourth.

This is the third time this has happened in the majors this season. The Los Angeles Dodgers did it on May 24 in Washington and the Minnesota Twins on April 10 against Seattle.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Angels: Trout (inflammation of the left rib cage) began rotational exercises on Wednesday. There is no update on when he will start swinging a bat again. … P Griffin Canning (lower back stress reaction) hasn’t started pitching and has been ruled out of pitching this season.