Lourdes Gurriel Jr. doubled home the tie-breaking run in the eighth inning for his season-high fifth RBI, and the Toronto Blue Jays overcame two homers by Shohei Ohtani to complete a four-game sweep of the Los Angeles Angels with an 11-10 victory Sunday.
Raimel Tapia added three RBIs and Bo Bichette hit a tying homer in the eighth for Toronto, which capped its first four-game sweep of the Angels in 30 years with its highest-scoring performance of the season.
Look at Gurri, man…<a href=”https://twitter.com/yunitogurriel?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@yunitogurriel</a> has FIVE RBI today 🍍 <a href=”https://t.co/scMcVkeTZn”>pic.twitter.com/scMcVkeTZn</a>
—@BlueJays
Toronto blew a four-run lead and Los Angeles blew a three-run lead in a wild game featuring 25 combined hits and highlighted early on by Ohtani’s latest power display.
Ohtani hit a solo homer in the first inning and a two-run shot in the third for his ninth career multi-homer game. The AL MVP has seven homers in May and 11 this season.
Toronto raked the Angels’ hurlers for 13 hits even without slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the starting lineup. Guerrero, who has a sore left wrist, was intentionally walked as a pinch-hitter in the eighth.
Max Stassi hit a go-ahead homer in the seventh off Adam Cimber (6-2) and drove in three runs on four hits, but the Halos finished 3-6 on a nine-game homestand. While Ohtani reached base four times, Mike Trout went 0 for 5 for the first time this season.
Moments after Bichette tied it with his solo shot off Ryan Tepera, the Blue Jays reclaimed the lead on Gurriel’s RBI double off Jose Quijada (0-1), who hadn’t pitched in the majors since April 7.
David Phelps pitched the ninth for his first save since 2019.
🗣 BYE 🗣<br>🗣 BYE 🗣<br>🗣 BICHETTE 🗣 <a href=”https://t.co/F0FMktzFES”>pic.twitter.com/F0FMktzFES</a>
—@BlueJays
Andrew Velazquez, who made an atrocious early throwing error, also made the final out in a one-run Angels loss for the second straight night.
Jose Berrios gave up six runs on six hits — including both of Ohtani’s homers — while getting just seven outs for the Blue Jays. Ohtani blasted Berrios’ curveball 413 feet into the elevated right field bleachers in the first, ending the AL MVP’s 0-for-10 slide.
Patrick Sandoval yielded five earned runs over three innings in his worst start of the year for the Angels. After allowing Gurriel’s two-run double in the second, he issued three straight walks in the third, forcing in another run. Tapia then drove in two more with a single that ricocheted off second base.
Ward then came through in the fourth with his 10th homer of the season and his first during a homestand in which he barely played after running into the outfield wall during the opening game. He added a long, run-scoring double in the sixth.
Toronto rallied for three runs to tie it in the seventh, sandwiching Tapia’s RBI single between bases-loaded walks for Gurriel and pinch-hitter Teoscar Hernandez from the struggling Tepera.
Luis Rengifo tripled into the right field corner and scored for Los Angeles in the second when Santiago Espinal’s relay throw ended up in the netting.
Guerrero was in the starting initial lineup, but was scratched. Thanks to his eighth-inning appearance, the slugger has missed only one game this season, and only two of Toronto’s last 269 contests dating to 2020.
Reference-www.cbc.ca