Angels 8, Royals 1
Shohei Ohtani had drawn six walks over the past two games. On Tuesday, he came to hack.
The game had settled into a nice cadence before the Angels even came up to bat. José Mota had play-by-play duties, and he was joined by Mark Gubicza and Garret Anderson in the booth. The trio seemed rather frenetic at times in the first inning, but they slowly settled into a nice rhythm, and it was nice to hear them have conversations about baseball while keeping viewers updated on the score, Mota alternating between the past and the present with ease.
It may be with only slight exaggeration that Angels fans enjoyed GA on the broadcast.
It was with that pleasant backdrop, then, when Shohei Ohtani stepped up to the plate and demolished a baseball.
It’s pretty clear that Ohtani has evolved in the past calendar year as a hitter, and his timing is now impeccable. He’s run into some trouble over the past few weeks (I think, perhaps, ever since Ohtani got rung up on a pitch outside the strike zone by Angel Hernandez, which warped his baseball sensibilities), but right now, Ohtani has me in the mindset that he’s going to crush the baseball every time he steps up to the plate. Which he did his second time up as well.
Max Stassi, José Iglesias, Justin Upton, and Taylor Ward later joined the home run brigade.
In the case of Stassi, I struggle to name more than about seven or eight catchers in the league I would rather be my backstop than Stassi. If Kurt Suzuki is Ohtani’s personal catcher, I would really appreciate it if Stassi was in the lineup for all other games than the night-day combinations (this Saturday-Sunday in Arizona is two day games, so perhaps Stassi might be able to catch both?).
Justin Upton continues to rake in the leadoff spot, as I look on with a bemused expression.
Meanwhile, Andrew Heaney was on the bump, and he was just pumping out fastballs. Jeff Fletcher pointed out that Heaney increased his fastball usage today. Of Heaney’s 109 pitches, 82 of them were fastballs, as he was just pumping them. It was a good, lively fastball today as well, averaging 92.5 mph, hitting 95 at times, and he got 18 whiffs on 47 swings.
Heaney got through 6.2 innings, striking out seven, walking two, and allowing just one run. It was an impressive performance for an Angels squad that basically needs all the wins it can get at the moment.
Jake Brentz balked in the seventh inning, which is entirely not noteworthy save for the fact that it is my friend’s favorite thing in the world and it has happened in back-to-back games.
Man, though. Shohei Ohtani. He’s an Angel. Wow.
And definitely bring GA back onto the broadcast.
Title Picture from MLB Video
The 5 HRs made me wonder what the team record is for one game: 7, the last time when they played the Montreal Expos at a Montreal “home game” in Puerto Rico, June 4th, 2003.
Brad Fullmer hit his 5th of the season.
GA hit 3, to give him 11 on the season.
Glaus hit his 13th.
Jeff DaVanon hit 2 to put him at 8.
Little less than 18 years ago, but feels like 38 years ago to me.
Great job boys who didnt play 3B!
Well done!
Incredible night at the yard. The Ohtani bomb is almost certainly the longest I’ve ever seen live.
I remember Vlad and GA going pretty high up the batter’s eye to dead center, but not that high.
I saw one in person that Reggie hit off of Charlie Hough that went about 2/3 up on the batters eye but it was more in the middle of it.
That was the game the Angels clinched the 1982 AL West.
I think Shohei’s was farther because it was near the very top of the batters eye.
I suspect that the longest ever recorded on film was Reggie at Tiger Stadium (ASG), when it hit the speaker on the roof.
Yep. That was an amazing shot. It seemed to still be rising/going up when it hit the light standard. If those lights were not there it would have left the stadium completely.
I have heard stories about the ball that Willie Stargell hit COMPLETELY OUT of Dodger Stadium. It supposedly went out over the back of the RF bullpen and must have travelled 550 feet in the air. Some kid in the parking lot picked it up off the ground.
The one Bonds hit off Washburn in Game 1 of the WS went a real long way, and I saw that one in person. Still, the one he hit off Percival probably went farther, but I was not there for that one.
This site has Stargell hitting two completely out of Dodger Stadium, in 1969 and 1973, listed at 506 and 470 feet, respectively. That’s the way I remember it, too. I saw the 470 footer on local TV news that night.
The only Dodger to hit it out of Doyer Stad is Piazza, 478 feet in 1997. Mark “Roids Comin’ Out Mah Pores” McGwire hit it out of the stadium in 1999, at 483 feet, and the last guy to hit it completely out of their stadium was Giancarlo “Stop Calling Me Mike” Stanton, in 2015: 475 feet.
Stargell’s 505 is listed as the longest.
No one has hit one out there to dead center, either because it’s too far (?) or it would have to squeeze through the gap between the big Dodger sign and the last row? I’ve like to see MNT or Ohtani do it. Acuna, Jr will be playing more games there and he could do it, but I have my doubts: apparently Bonds and Sosa never did it.
I remember an old Guinness Book I had claimed Mantle hit one 565 feet, and IIRC, it was against the old Washington Senators, in 1953, their park, Griffith Stadium. But William Jenkinson suggests Mantle’s HR traveled a “mere” 510 feet, a measure that even Adam Dunn has reached.
The last time I saw anything going up as fast as that Ohtani HR it was launching a spy satellite from Vandenberg in April (bucket list, finally saw a space launch). Just holy crap. That double he hit reminded me a little of Don Baylor- he would hit a liner to right so fast that he only got a single out of it after it rocketed back off the fence. I really do feel this team has finally found itself. Things are meshing together and these guys actually believe they can win. Walsh, Ward, looking really good. We get Trouty back and look out. I want Canning to get back to his decent self tomorrow.
In the summer of 1963 while my Dad was working on the Titan II program at VAFB we lived in a trailer park on the south end of Orcutt. We got to see numerous launches including a low altitude detonation of a missile that was veering off course. I can still remember the gigantic orange fireball and heat wave it generated. My Dad worked in the Space Program for thirty years and we got to see some pretty amazing stuff.
Pretty cool. My dad worked in aerospace in the early 60s, Convair in San Diego and Douglas in Santa Monica. Always been fascinated with space and aviation. Drive up to Mojave and Palmdale once in a while to take airplane pictures.
Did your Dad work on the B58 Hustler at Convair.
My favorite all time bomber. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_B-58_Hustler
10-5 last 15!
I got lost in a fantasy of what our record would be if we could keep that up.
Don’t do that to yourself 😃 let’s just hope they get to .500 before July. That would be a victory!
Only 5 1/2 back in the Wild Card.
Just hang on till Trout gets back!!
we’ve already won 3 more games than all of last year and we’re closing in on 2019, too!
And the best part of the balk is that Ohtani called it from the batters box.
Angels Win!
GA was absolutely fantastic. One of the most fun games of the season! Best broadcast of the year.