LA Angels lose game even after hitting seven homers

The Los Angeles Angels lost to the Oakland Athletics even after hitting seven homers including multi homers’ hit by Shohei Ohtani in a home game on Thursday local time. The team is tying as sixth team ever in the Major League Baseball to lose a game after hitting seven homers. Oakland hit two homers on the day.

The fact the team lost seven homers to secure only seven runs means that all the homers were solo homers. Angels are the first ever in the Major League history whose seven or more homers are all solos. Previous record was six solo homers hit by Oakland on Aug. 4, 1991, and by Toronto on May 22, 2019.

Ohtani’s stellar performance lost some lust due to his team’s loss. Starting as second batter and designated hitter, the Angels’ two-way superstar hit his 24th homer of the season in the bottom of the first inning, which gave his team the game’s opening run, before hitting his 25th homer over right-side fence in the bottom of the seventh inning when his team was trailing 5-8. He hit multiple homers in a single game for the first time in 44 days since the game against The Kansas City Royals on June 22, and the fifth time this season. In these five games, Angels had two wins and three losses.

With Sunday’s homers, Ohtani now has 117 homers to tie for second with Ichiro Suzuki with most homers among the Japanese players in the Major League. Hideki Matsui is the Japanese Major leaguer with most homers by posting 175 homers.


leper@donga.com