Shohei Ohtani, Max Stassi and Taylor Ward homered and Alex Cobb rebounded from one bad inning to lift the Los Angeles Angels to a 12-5 victory over the Seattle Mariners Saturday night in Anaheim, Calif.
The Mariners scored five runs off Cobb in the fourth inning, four of them coming on Jake Fraley’s grand slam. But after allowing the slam, Cobb retired the next 11 hitters to get through seven innings.
The Angels offense took it from there, putting the game away with a five-run eighth inning. Seven Angels hitters had two hits apiece in the game, including Ohtani with a home run and double.
Five Angels each drove in two runs and the Angels finished with 15 hits in all. Despite giving up the five runs, Cobb (4-2) allowed just three hits, struck out six and walked one.
Seattle reliever Drew Steckenrider (2-2) got the loss.
The Angels took an early lead against Mariners starter Yusei Kikuchi in the first inning as Ohtani hit the first pitch he saw over the fence in center for his team-leading 16th home run of the season.
Cobb held the lead until the fourth when the Mariners erupted for five runs. After loading the bases with one out, Seattle scored its first run of the game on Taylor Trammell’s RBI infield single. Fraley followed with his grand slam to give the Mariners a 5-1 lead.
Kikuchi gave up a solo homer to Stassi in the fourth inning, making it 5-2, before being literally knocked out of the game in the fifth. With one on and nobody out, David Fletcher hit a sharp one-hopper to the mound, the ball hitting Kikuchi on his right knee and ricocheting back towards the plate.
Catcher Jose Godoy fielded the ball but threw it over the head of first baseman Ty France and down the right-field line. Ward scored from first on the error and Fletcher wound up at second. Kikuchi remained on the ground until the trainer came onto the field and helped Kikuchi to the dugout. Kikuchi was initially diagnosed with a right knee contusion.
Anthony Rendon added an RBI single later in the inning, the run charged to Kikuchi, as the Angels narrowed their deficit to 5-4.
Ward’s two-run homer in the sixth inning gave the Angels the lead for good.
–Field Level Media