OAKLAND — An eager crowd of 14,000 flocked to the Oakland Coliseum on a frigid Monday night to watch two-way star Shohei Ohtani pitch and bat second against the Oakland A’s. The show turned into a tense pitcher’s duel between Ohtani and A’s starter Cole Irvin with a glimmer of hope for a struggling Ramón Laureano.
The game came to a head in the seventh inning. After completing six scoreless innings, Ohtani moved to left field and surrendered the mound to reliever Steve Cishek. So Ohtani had a front row seat to watch his scoreless performance flushed when Laureano blasted a three-run home run — his 14th of the year — 396 feet over his head.
It led to the A’s 4-1 win on Monday night, thrilling half the crowd on the third-base side and disappointing the red-clad half on the other.
Ohtani unhittable: Ohtani came as advertised, piecing together an impressive start while holding down the two-spot. He went 1-for-4 at the plate but held the A’s to three hits total over his six innings.
“You’re going into the game knowing you have to be really good,” manager Bob Melvin said.
That included a pair of doubles from Mitch Moreland and Mark Canha — the latter prompted the A’s scoring threat against Ohtani with Tony Kemp, who walked, on third base with less than two outs. But Ohtani struck out Elvis Andrus and Matt Olson hit a ball into the shift to end the threat.
Ohtani registered back-to-back strikeouts against Matt Chapman and Laureano to spoil Moreland’s double in the second inning. Known to wipe hitters out with his splitter, Ohtani picked apart the A’s with a devastating slider on Monday. He used it to finish off five of his eight strikeouts, and cruised with that along with his four-seamer and cutter.
Mark Canha, back atop the lineup, set the tone for the A’s approach with a seven-pitch at-bat to start the game. Ohtani was up to 96 pitches by the end of the sixth; he left with the game still scoreless.
“Ohtani got off to a good start and pitched great. We wore him out a little bit,” Melvin said. “Got him out of the game and beat the relievers. We were talking before the game that you don’t have to necessarily beat him. But Cole matched him. Had big outs when he needed to. Double-play balls. Was great and efficient again. His pitch count was so good that we could pitch him really deep in the game.”
Cole Irvin’s start: Irvin not only matched Ohtani inning for inning, but cruised on an efficient pitch count that allowed him to pitch into the eighth inning. Irvin stole the Ohtani show.
Irvin’s performance against the game’s superstar is no surprise, either. He’s been consistent as any of the A’s starters this year, lowering his ERA to 3.42, good for 11th best in the American League. He tamed an Angels offense he’s seen three times now — save for David Fletcher — who reached base three times against him on a leadoff double, single and a walk.
“Fletcher had my number today,” Irvin said. “I gave him cookies to hit, so there’s some stuff there I need to improve on. First start after the All-Star break I felt like there were a few cobwebs — they accumulate quickly in this game — but felt good.”
Fletcher isn’t one to wait around for a mistake, he’s an A’s killer because he can turn any contact into a hit. But the lead-off hitter’s three trips to the bases raised the stakes each time two-hole hitter Ohtani came to the plate. Irvin and the A’s defense denied all three opportunities.
Ohtani’s only hit of the game was a double that Fletcher tried to score on from first base. But Laureano found cutoff man Elvis Andrus, who connected with catcher Sean Murphy to get Fletcher out at home. The Angels challenged the call at home, presumably arguing that Murphy’s foot blocked the plate, but the call stood.
“He absolutely tattooed it, I didn’t even see it go by my head. But Ramón is a good outfielder, read the play and got it in quick and Elvis has a good arm and rifled it into Sean,” Irvin said. “Fired me up. Play took Sean into home plate so it was a clean play all the way through. It fired me up and kept me going. It was a lot of adrenaline after that out. As you saw, it helped with momentum.”
Irvin cleaned up his walk to Fletcher in the fifth by getting Ohtani on three pitches, striking him out on a slider. Irvin departed the game to a standing ovation after giving up a leadoff hit in the eighth inning to Brandon Marsh, but Lou Trivino threw a perfect curveball to get Ohtani to pop out and strand the runner.
Irvin finished with seven-plus innings and kept all seven hits he allowed from crossing home. Trivino collected three outs in the eighth and came back out for the ninth, where he allowed a run on Marsh’s double down the third base line, scoring Phil Gosselin from first base.
Trivino gave up a run in the ninth after issuing a walk and an RBI double to Marsh, but was good for the six outs the A’s needed out of him to finish off the game. That sixth out might’ve been the defensive play of the game: Chapman tracked Adam Eaton’s pop up into foul territory and caught it over the dugout wall.
Chappy makes a platinum play to end the game 😱 pic.twitter.com/9tGZKAEZ0O
— A's on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) July 20, 2021
Laureano’s moment: As Irvin prepared for that eighth inning, he heard rumors of a called home run. He couldn’t trace the rumor’s origin, but word in the dugout was Laureano was going yard.
“We like to try to call each other’s home runs,” Irvin said. “We had fun with it. The energy in the dugout isn’t changing. Everyone is even keeled and locked into executing.”
Like most of the A’s offense of late, Laureano has been in a bit of a rut. He entered the game 1-for-12 on the home stand and batting .167 with a .463 OPS since June 25, when the A’s offense began to skid collectively.
Cishek, the Angels reliever with a funky delivery, entered the game having not allowed a home run in 41 1/3 innings. He pulled a slider up into the zone and Laureano punished it for his first home run since June 22. Cishek had walked Chapman and Moreland back-to-back to set the table, and Laureano battled a few pitches to capitalize on a pitch off a pitcher clearly off.
“It was huge,” Melvin said. “Seems like in a game like that when it’s zeroes and gets going like that after six innings. One swing of the bat might change the game, and we’ve seen Ramón do it a lot. But as far as his confidence goes, that’s going to go a long way.
“It was a big hit for him. Hopefully that goes a long way for him. Not that he’s un-confident, he’s always confident but when you’re going through a rut a home run like that can do wonders for you.”
Matt Olson’s moonshot in the eighth inning provided some insurance for the A’s. His 24th home run of the year.