ANAHEIM, Calif. — Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout homered in the same game for the 26th time since becoming teammates, leading the Los Angeles Angels to their fourth straight victory and a sweep of the Boston Red Sox had a 7-3 win on Wednesday night.
“It would be great if we could go two deep,” Trout said. “Good things happen…. [The Red Sox] beat us three out of four when we played them there [in Boston]so it’s good to get a little sweep.”
Rookie Zach Neto hit a three-run homer during the Angels’ four-run second inning and added a double in his first three-hit game for Los Angeles, which has won six of seven overall.
The Angels’ MVP duo came out early. Ohtani connected in the third for his team-leading 12th homer, bringing James Paxton to the opposite field for his fourth shot in 10 days. The pitch is 3.74 feet above the ground, making it the second highest pitch on which Ohtani has homered.
“That’s big power right there,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said before referring to the cloudy, cold weather patterns known as May Gray or June Gloom this time of year in Southern California. “We didn’t carry the ball very well tonight, [so] to go the other way with the wind the way it is now [is impressive].”
Trout followed in the fourth with a two-run shot off Nick Pivetta, matching Ohtani’s season total with his fourth homer in seven days. The three-time AL MVP also passed Joe DiMaggio for his 362nd career homer.
“You could just feel the excitement in the dugout and how excited the fans were” when Ohtani and Trout went deep, Angels starter Tyler Anderson said.
The Angels are now 4-0 this season when Ohtani and Trout homer in the same game, something that has happened 26 times since Ohtani joined the Angels in 2018. That’s the third-most among teammates in that span, trailing only Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy (33) and Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton (28), according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
Anderson gave up five hits and one run in six innings for his first win in eight starts. The veteran left-hander has a seven-decision streak since his debut for Los Angeles on April 2, but he has improved his ERA to 3.14 over his last five starts after a rocky start to his Angels career.
Los Angeles went up 4-0 in the second inning on Gio Urshela’s RBI flyout followed by Neto’s third career homer. The 22-year-old rookie has firmly grabbed the starting job at shortstop since his major league debut in Boston last month, providing solid defense and steadily improving offense.
You can see how comfortable I feel,” Neto said. “I’m going to go out there, have fun and be myself.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
