Shohei Ohtani’s seventh home run of the season helps Angels avoid sweep
MILWAUKEE — Shohei Ohtani hit a third-inning drive to center field, a no-doubt home run.
“I kept waiting for it to hit somewhere up on the scoreboard. Then I saw the metrics,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said. “I haven’t seen many like that. He’s special, and we see something new each day with him.”
Ohtani’s shot off Milwaukee’s Colin Rea reached 162 feet above the field, the highest since Statcast started tracking in 2015, and helped the Angels beat the Brewers 3-0 on Sunday to avoid a three-game sweep.
Ohtani hit his seventh home run of the season on an 85.9-mph cutter from Rea (0-2). The ball left the bat with 114.3 exit velocity and a launch angle of 39 degrees, and after a hang time of 6.98 seconds it landed 413 feet away in deep center.
Mike Trout hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning and another in the ninth, but the visiting Angels lost 7-5 to the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday.
“I watched it,” Rea said. “I knew it was gone.”
Milwaukee center fielder Joey Wiemer and right fielder Brian Anderson could only look up and watch.
“He’s super aggressive,” Rea said. “Not the best pitch selection on my part. He did a good job of putting the barrel on it.”
Ohtani is batting .394 (13 for 33) in his last eight games with two doubles, one triple, three homers, seven RBIs and four stolen bases. He is hitting .294 with 18 RBIs this season, and the two-way star is 4-0 with a 1.85 earned-run average on the mound.
Ohtani also was picked off first base in the sixth and grounded out in the eighth.
José Suarez (1-1) gave up two hits in five innings with a season-high six strikeouts and three walks, rebounding from an April 24 outing against Oakland in which he gave up five home runs before getting his seventh out.
“It’s hard to take your lumps like that for several starts,” Nevin said. “He made some adjustments with some things, but I’m just really proud of him.”
Chris Devenski, Chase Silseth, Matt Moore and Carlos Estévez completed a three-hitter for the Angels’ fourth shutout this season. Estévez pitched a perfect ninth for his sixth save in as many chances.
“We didn’t get much going at all,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “A very quiet day offensively.”
Taylor Ward, coming off a grand slam robbery, helped the Angels beat the Oakland Athletics 5-3 on Tuesday at Angel Stadium.
Jake Lamb homered in the second inning, his first since Aug. 27, and Luis Rengifo had an RBI single in the seventh against Hoby Milner.
Rea struck out a career-high nine in five innings, giving up three hits and a walk.
Milwaukee was blanked for the fourth time.
Mike Trout was 0 for 4 with three strikeouts.
Angels shortstop Zach Neto went 0 for 3 with a strikeout and a walk, a day after taking a 95-mph sinker from Corbin Burnes in the right forearm.
Tyler Anderson pitched 6 2/3 strong innings for the Angels, but they gave up a tiebreaking run in the eighth inning and lost 2-1 at Milwaukee.
Brewers left fielder Christian Yelich, a Thousand Oaks native and National League most valuable player in 2018, got the day off. He hit .192 (five for 26) with no home runs and four RBIs during the team’s nine-game homestand.
The Angels have the day off Monday and travel to St. Louis to face the Cardinals, who were swept over the weekend by the Dodgers at the end of their 10-game West Coast trip.
Left-hander Patrick Sandoval (2-1, 3.16 ERA) faces left-hander Steven Matz (0-3, 6.23 ERA) on Tuesday in the opener of a three-game series that completes the team’s six-game trip.
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