Seventy-nine minutes after throwing a one-hit complete-game shutout in Game 1, Los Angeles Angels two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani blasted his MLB-leading 37th home run off right-hander Matt Manning in Game 2.
Less than an hour later, Ohtani launched his 38th home run of the season for the 16th multi-homer game of his career.
The Detroit Tigers lost both games to the surging Angels in Thursday’s doubleheader, falling 11-4 in Game 2. The Tigers (46-57) were swept in three games at Comerica Park and dropped to 7½ games behind the first-place Minnesota Twins in the American League Central Division.
The Angels have a 52-27 record against the Tigers since 2011.
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Ohtani, who left the game in the seventh inning due to cramping, finished 2-for-3 with two home runs and three RBIs in Game 2 of the doubleheader, whereas the Tigers scored just four runs in both games.
Manning struck out Ohtani on three consecutive fastballs — 97 mph (called strike), 97.4 mph (swinging strike) and 97.9 mph (called strike) — in the first inning, but Ohtani got his revenge as part of a five-run second inning.
The Angels scored their first three runs from Luis Rengifo’s two-RBI triple and Zach Neto’s RBI single before Ohtani won a seven-pitch battle. He unloaded on Manning’s 94.2 mph fastball with a 107.6 mph exit velocity for an opposite-field, two-run home run.
The first Ohtani homer pushed the Angels’ lead to 5-0.
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The Angels blasted two home runs off Manning in the fourth inning: Eduardo Escobar hit an 81 mph slider to right field for a solo home run, and Ohtani hit a 94.8 mph fastball to center field for a solo home run.
The second Ohtani homer — tagged with an elite 116.9 mph exit velocity — traveled 435 feet to the right side of center field, landed in front of the brick wall and put the Tigers behind by five runs, 7-2.
Manning, who threw 64 of 87 pitches for strikes, allowed seven runs on seven hits and one walk with five strikeouts across five innings. It was his eighth start of the season and his sixth start since returning from the injured list.
He generated 14 whiffs with four fastballs, nine sliders and one curveball.
Four runs, one mistake
The Tigers scored two runs in the third inning against left-hander Patrick Sandoval, who gave up two runs on five hits and two walks with four strikeouts across five innings in his 18th start.
The third inning started with back-to-back singles from Zack Short and Matt Vierling, with Short advancing to third base on Sandoval’s throwing error. He scored on Spencer Torkelson’s groundout for the Tigers’ first run.
An ensuing two-out single from Kerry Carpenter drove in Vierling, cutting the Tigers’ deficit to 5-2.
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The third run was accounted for in the seventh inning when Vierling reached safely on a fielding error by Neto, the Angels’ shortstop. The error occurred with two outs and allowed Zach McKinstry to score from third base.
The Tigers trimmed the margin to 8-4 in the eighth inning, thanks to McKinstry’s single scoring Javier Báez. A big mistake during that play squandered the Tigers’ chance at more runs.
Jake Rogers slid into third base and came off the bag.
Once that happened, Rengifo tagged him out to end the inning. The call on the field was upheld by the umpires. The Tigers left two runners — Rogers and McKinstry — in scoring position.
White gets rocked
After Manning, the Tigers used right-handed reliever Trey Wingenter, lefty reliever Chasen Shreve and righty reliever Brendan White to cover the final five innings.
Wingenter, who hadn’t pitched for the Tigers since April 15, came up from Triple-A Toledo as the 27th player for the doubleheader. He surrendered a solo home run to Hunter Renfroe to begin his outing, then settled in.
The Angels scored one run off Wingenter in the sixth and seventh innings. Shreve worked around a pair of hits in the eighth, while White gave up three runs, making it 11-4, in the ninth inning.
White needed 31 pitches to log three outs.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.