Jared Walsh homered twice, Shohei Ohtani hit his major league-leading 32nd homer and the Los Angeles Angels held off the Boston Red Sox, 5-4, Wednesday afternoon in Anaheim, Calif.
Ohtani and Walsh went back-to-back in the fifth inning, breaking a 2-2 tie and giving the Angels the lead for good. For Ohtani, his 32 home runs set a record for most in a season by a Japanese-born player. Hideki Matsui hit 31 homers for the Yankees in 2004.
Walsh, who will join Ohtani next week at the All-Star game, now has 22 home runs.
Angels second baseman David Fletcher chipped in with two hits, extending his hitting streak to 21 games.
Angels starter Andrew Heaney (5-6) earned the victory over Red Sox starter Eduardo Rodriguez (6-5). Raisel Iglesias pitched the ninth for Los Angeles and earned his 18th save.
The Angels took an early lead against Rodriguez in the first inning, scoring two runs. Fletcher led off with a single and went to third on a single by Ohtani, who took second on Boston’s throw to third.
Fletcher scored on a groundout by Walsh and Ohtani scored on Phil Gosselin’s single to put the Angels up 2-0.
Heaney held the Red Sox scoreless on one hit through four innings before they scored twice in the fifth. The Red Sox had four singles in the inning, including RBI singles by Bobby Dalbec and Alex Verdugo, tying the game at 2-2.
The Angels immediately got the runs back in the bottom of the inning via Ohtani’s and Walsh’s back-to-back home runs.
Boston knocked Heaney out of the game in the sixth, then got an RBI single from Christian Arroyo to score inherited runner Xander Bogaerts and cut the Angels’ lead to 4-3. Heaney gave up three runs on six hits in 5 1/3 innings, striking out five and walking two.
Walsh’s second homer was another solo shot in the seventh. In the eighth, J.D. Martinez hit a fly ball to deep right field that was ruled a triple after right fielder Luis Rengifo appeared to lose the ball in the sun. Martinez then scored on a double from Bogaerts, cutting the Angels’ lead to 5-4.
–Field Level Media