Los Angeles Angels designated hitter Shohei Ohtani (17) celebrates after hitting an RBI-single against the Oakland Athletics during the third inning of a baseball game, Saturday, April 1, 2023, in Oakland, Calif. First base coach Damon Mashore, left, looks on. (AP News photo)
Los Angeles 0. 0.11 0 0 1 o o-13 11 2
Oakland 0. 0. 0.0. 1.0 0 0-1. 5. 2
Time: 2:24
Attendance: 15,757
By Lewis Rubman
OAKLAND–This afternoon’s contest between the Angels and the Athletics promised to be an interesting one. It end up being a no contest, with Oakland on the short end of a 13-1 score. The long awaited debut of Shintaro Fujinami turned out to be a dud.
Fujinami is no Shoei Ohtani–who is?– but he is, or at least was , in the same class as the Angels’ star. Four Japanese teams chose him as their first pick in the 2012 amateur draft, a draft that included Ohtani, who pitched a brilliant six innings of two hit shutout ball in Thursday night’s season opener against the A’s, a coda to his MVP performance in the World Baseball Classic and possibly a prelude to an historical season.
Although the 28 year old Fujinami technically is a rookie, he has 10 years’ experience in the Japanese major leagues, all of them with his hometown Harshen Tigers. In that span, he compiled a record of 57-54, 3.41. 154 of his 189 mound appearances was as a start for him. Lifetime, he issued an average of 4.15 free passes every nine innings. He is a strike out pitcher, averaging 9.15 Ks an inning, for a total of 1,001. His virtues were on display for two innings .
Fujinami’s counterpart on the Angels doesn’t have the cosmopolitan cache that Fujinami brings to the game. Patrick Sandoval is a native of Mission Viejo, a suburb of Anaheim, and he still lives in that town. That the Halos’ starter is a lefty puts an additional touch to the contrast. He had an excellent season in 2022, when his ERA of 2.91 gave the line to his won-lost record of 6-9.
He allowed less home runs per innings than any other AL hurler who worked 100 innings or more He has been especially effective against your Oakland A’s, again, in spite of an unprepossessing W-L of 2-3. His ERA, against the green and gold is a meager 1.84, and is 1-1, 0.87 at the crumbling pleasure dome on the Nimitz. He has a particularly nasty and effective change up.
The game began as a pitcher’s duel. The only man to reach base safely in the first two frames was Ramón Laureano, who got to first on a two out error by Rendon in the bottom of the second. The game opened up after that. Luis Rengifo led off the third with a full count walk and advanced to second on Gio Urshela’s single to center.
Number nine hitter Logan O’Hoppe followed up with a double to the base of the right field fence that scored Rengifo and moved Urshela to third. A walk to Trout loaded the bases with Ohtani coming to bat.
He sent a fly to left, near the foul line that fell for what looked like it would be a double, but the Angels played it conservatively, and the bases stayed full as O’Hoppe crossed the plate with their third run of he inning. Rendon then lifted a sacrifice fly to center to make it 4-0. Jake Lamb’s single to center with Ruíz’s error in fielding the hit made it 6-0 with runners on the corners. It also ended Fujinami’s work day.
Adam Oller took over and promptly walked Rengifo, throwing a wild pitch in the process. You don’t want to hear the rest, and I can barely stand writing it. Before the inning was over Taylor Ward had hit a 392 foot home run and the Angels held an 11-0 lead over Oakland
Fujinami’s debut consisted of 2-1/3 innings on the mound, in which he surrendered eight runs, every one of them earned, on five hits and three walks. He struck out four and threw 55 pitches, 33 for strikes. His MLB ERA stands at 30.86.
After his atrocious failure to limit the damage in the third, Oller stayed in the game, giving up a a run in the sixth and another, this one unearned, in the seventh, thanks to an error by Aguilar at first, an infield single, and an RBI single by Ward. That made it 13-1 Jeurys Familia relieved Oller to start the eighth. He set the Halos down in order. Sam Moll pitched a perfect ninth, with the help of some spiffy fielding by Kemp.
It was 13-1 because the A’s finally put a run on the board when Laureano led off the home fifth with his first hit of the year, a 396 foot drive over the left field wall off an 82 mph change of pace that, this time, was as devastating as it had been in the past. Oakland at that point trailed, 11-1
That was the last inning of the day for Sandoval. He had lasted five frames, enough to earn him the win. Laureano’s round tripper was one of the only two hits he allowed, along with a pair of free passes. He struck out two A’s and threw 86 pitches, 56 for strikes. Tucker Davidson replaced him on the mound.
The win went to Sandoval; the loss, to Fujinami. Davidson, because he pitched three innings or more (in this case, four) got the save.
The Angels Anthnoy Rendon who grabbed a fan by the shirt after last Thursday’s game at the Coliseum told reporters that he cannot talk about the incident. Rendon would not confirm or deny what took place.
The rubber gem of the series is slated for 1:07 Sunday afternoon. Oakland’s Ken Waldichuk will face the Angels Tyler Anderson in a battle of southpaws.
