Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani flashed their power on Wednesday in the sort of one-upmanship that is always welcome for the Los Angeles Angels.
As the Angels earned a 12-5 win in the rubber match of a three-game road series against the Chicago White Sox, Trout and Ohtani homered in the same game for the 27th time overall.
The Angels, who are 5-0 this season when both of their stars homer in the same contest, will open a four-game road series against the Houston Astros on Thursday night.
After Trout bashed his 13th home run of the season in the first inning — a two-run, 461-foot shot — Ohtani added a two-run homer in the third, with Trout scoring. Ohtani produced his 15th home run in the fourth, another two-run blast that carried 459 feet. Sparked by Trout and Ohtani, the Angels hit five homers.
“It’s more of a mindset for the guys when those two guys are rolling like that and you have a game where they both get one out of there — Shohei two of them,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said. “The dugout atmosphere is just different. That’s just the way it is.
“Those are the guys you lean on, and we’re going to need them a lot. Games like (Wednesday) are why they are who they are, and they can certainly put teams on their backs and carry us.”
Reid Detmers (0-4, 4.93 ERA) will start the series opener for the Angels. He took a loss in his most recent outing after allowing three runs on 10 hits and two walks with five strikeouts over five-plus innings in a 6-2 setback to the Miami Marlins on Friday.
The 23-year-old left-hander has allowed three earned runs or less in seven of his nine starts and has yielded two earned runs four times.
Detmers is 1-1 with a 3.98 ERA in four career starts against the Astros, having struck out 21 in 20 1/3 innings. In three starts against Houston last season, he finished 0-1 with a 5.02 ERA.
While the Astros did not announce a starter for the series opener, Framber Valdez (5-4, 2.38 ERA) would be working on regular rest. He earned a 6-3 win against the Oakland Athletics on Saturday after allowing one run on four hits and three walks with five strikeouts over six innings.
Valdez has surrendered one run or no runs in three of his past four starts, all victories.
The 29-year-old left-hander is 8-4 with a 3.73 ERA over 16 career appearances (12 starts) against the Angels. He faced them on May 9, when he allowed one run on three hits and no walks while recording a season-high 12 strikeouts over eight innings in a 3-1 road victory.
The Astros will play on a Thursday for the first time since their season opener against the Chicago White Sox on March 30 in what will be their seventh game in a stretch of 17 games over 17 days. That compressed schedule will facilitate the need for Houston to utilize a six-man rotation in the near term, but club officials would not reveal who might join the starting staff.
“We’ll announce it (Thursday) morning,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “We’ve got to tell somebody that they’re going (to be sent down).”
–Field Level Media
