It will never feel anything but cruel that the Los Angeles Angels had Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani together for six years and three MVP awards without playing in a single postseason game.
Worse still are all the ways the Angels accumulated the losses that kept them out of October. You know how it went. Trout would hit three home runs, Ohtani would pitch seven scoreless with 12 strikeouts, the Angels would lose 4-3 and Tungsten Arm O’Doyle would start trending again.
Well, now Ohtani is on the other side of town with the Dodgers, Trout is on the injured list and the Angels are 30-45, saved from holding down the bottom of the American League West standings by only the intentionally hapless A’s.
That set the stage for Friday night’s matchup at Dodger Stadium, with Ohtani facing Anaheim for the first time since his high-profile free agency last winter. Naturally, he continued to do Ohtani things.
Shohei mashed a mammoth 455-foot, two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth inning to give the Dodgers the lead as part of a 2-2 night at the plate with two walks.
This Shohei Ohtani home run will be on repeat until further notice.
(MLBStats x @GoogleCloud) pic.twitter.com/3G4j74ZO3J
— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) June 22, 2024
And then it was Tungsten’s turn.
The Dodgers hit three Angels batters in the top of the sixth inning, walking in a run before a Mickey Moniak groundout brought another run home to knot the game at two. Things stayed that way into extra innings, when a Taylor Ward single to left brought Jo Adell around to score the go-ahead run.
Luis García came on in the bottom of the tenth for the Angels, forced Jason Heyward into a groundout and sat Enrique Hernández and Gavin Lux down on eight pitches to end the game.
The Dodgers probably won’t think too much of this loss. They’re still 47-31, leading the NL West by eight games likely only going to get stronger as Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler and Mookie Betts return from the injured list.
Yet, at least for one evening in Anaheim, O’Doyle ruled.
