Baseball

Bases-loaded intentional walk part of Angels’ win over Texas

AP
Los Angeles Angels’ Shohei Ohtani hits a solo home run against the Texas Rangers during the first inning of a baseball game, Friday, April 15, 2022, in Arlington, Texas.

Associated Press

13:10 JST, April 16, 2022

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Angels manager Joe Maddon ordered the second bases-loaded intentional walk of his career and only the third in the majors since at least 1950, and Shohei Ohtani homered twice to lead Los Angeles past the Texas Rangers 9-6 on Friday night.

Corey Seager joins Barry Bonds in 1998 and Josh Hamilton in 2008 in being given first base with the bases full. Hamilton’s free pass was also called by Maddon, who was then managing the Tampa Bay Rays against the Rangers.

Maddon visited with Austin Warren, who had walked his only previous batter to load the bases in the fourth inning, then signaled that Los Angeles wanted to walk Seager. That scored Charlie Culberson and put Texas ahead 4-2.

Mitch Garver followed with a sacrifice fly to the warning track, and Warren later balked in Marcus Semien to make it 6-2. The Angels answered with a five-run fifth that included Ohtani’s second homer to lead 7-6.

Bonds’ intentional walk was called by then-Arizona Diamondbacks manager Buck Showalter, now the skipper of the New York Mets.

Both of the previous bases-loaded intentional walks were also part of victories — the Rays over the Rangers 7-4 and the Diamondbacks over the San Francisco Giants 8-7.

Ohtani, last season’s two-way AL MVP, hit the game’s first pitch 406 feet into the Texas bullpen in right-center for his fifth leadoff homer and added a two-run shot in the fifth for his seventh multi-homer game. He came into the game hitting .172 with no RBIs.

Jo Adell, Kurt Suzuki and Jared Walsh also went deep for the Angels.

Warren (1-0) was charged with one run in 1 1/3 innings in relief of starter Reid Detmers. Raisel Iglesias pitched a scoreless ninth for his second save.

Culberson had a two-run double and three RBIs for the Rangers. Kolby Allard (0-1), who made 17 starts last season, gave up five runs in 5 1/3 innings as the third of seven Texas pitchers in a bullpen game.

The Rangers’ Matt Bush, 36, pitched the first inning for his first start in 143 big-league mound appearances.