Shohei Ohtani’s RBI was His Majors-Leading 61st of the Season: Lead Rockies Past Angels 4-3

AP

11:14 JST, June 26, 2023

DENVER (AP) — Ezequiel Tovar had two hits and two RBIs, Austin Gomber became Colorado’s first starter to earn a win in more than a month, and the Rockies edged the Los Angeles Angels 4-3 on Sunday, less than 24 hours after being routed 25-1.

“They’ve been resilient,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “They always do a good job of bouncing back and coming back fresh. It’s a combination of some good veterans and some younger players who every day come to play. I’m proud of them. There was good energy today.”

The Rockies entered the series mired in a season-worst eight-game losing streak, but took two of three from the Angels, who had a 32-12 scoring advantage. It’s the second-worst run differential for a winning team in a series in MLB history, behind only the 1897 Louisville Colonels at negative-23.

“It’s just baseball,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said. “I know we had a big night offensively last night, but we left too many out there on Friday and we left too many out there today. It’s why we were 1-2.”

Los Angeles lost for the fourth time in five games after winning 10 of its previous 13 games.

Tovar extended his career-best hitting streak to nine games with a solo homer to right field in the fifth inning and an RBI single in the seventh. He is batting .351 in his nine-game run.

“I feel great, but I approach every game differently,” Tovar said. “It’s like I didn’t even get a hit the previous day. That’s my game plan going in there every day with the same approach. Luckily, everything has been working out.”

Gomber (5-7) gave up five hits, a walk and two runs, with three strikeouts, through five innings. Entering the game, the 29-year-old left-hander had allowed 22 earned runs in 22 innings in his last five appearances.

In the ninth inning, Justin Lawrence forced Luis Rengifo into a groundout with the tying run on second and the go-ahead run on first and picked up his fourth save of the season.

Shohei Ohtani’s RBI triple in the sixth inning was his majors-leading 61st of the season.

Ohtani, Taylor Ward and Eduardo Escobar each finished with two hits for the Angels, who out-hit the Rockies 8-5. Colorado had been 6-31 this season when out-hit by its opponent.

Angels starter Tyler Anderson (4-2), a former Rockies first-round pick in 2011 who went on to play four seasons for the club, took the loss after giving up three runs in six innings while striking out a season-high nine.