Shohei Ohtani blasted a pair of two-run home runs and Mike Trout and Taylor Ward hit one each to lift the Los Angeles Angels to a 12-5 victory against the host Chicago White Sox on Wednesday.
Another early power surge boosted the Angels to a series win. Trout’s homer marked the third time in as many games that Los Angeles went deep in the first inning. Chad Wallach’s solo shot in the ninth punctuated the team’s five-homer afternoon.
Angels starter Jaime Barria pitched five strong innings to earn the victory. Barria (2-2) scattered one run and four hits with three walks and six strikeouts. He retired the first four batters he faced before allowing Chicago to load the bases with one out in the second. But Barria escaped the jam without much damage, allowing Gavin Sheets’ run-scoring sacrifice fly before striking out Romy Gonzalez.
Barria scattered just three hits, all singles, after that.
White Sox starter Lance Lynn surrendered home runs to Ohtani and Trout. He has yielded multiple homers in four of 12 starts this season, and at least one home run in nine.
Lynn fell to 4-6 after spacing eight runs and eight hits in four innings with two walks and four strikeouts. His most harrowing inning? A four-run third, when he walked two and hit a pair of batters around Ohtani’s first home run and Jared Walsh’s two-run double.
Tucker Davidson picked up the save with three innings of four-run relief.
Mickey Moniak, Ohtani, Ward and Walsh had two hits apiece for Los Angeles. Walsh had three RBIs to add to Ohtani’s four.
Ward and Ohtani, who delivered his first multi-home run game of the season, have homered in consecutive games.
Andrew Vaughn and Yasmani Grandal both had a pair of hits for the White Sox, who added a run on Clint Frazier’s pinch-hit RBI single in the seventh. Jake Burger hit a solo home run in the ninth. Hanser Alberto closed the scoring with a two-run double.
Eloy Jimenez extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a double one batter earlier.
The White Sox have lost four of five.
–Field Level Media
