After six goalless innings by Ohtani, Cishek went two and gave up a triple homer in the seventh inning of the Angels 4-1 defeat by Oakland A on Monday night.
It was a critical loss for the Angels to the team they are chasing for the final playoff spot as the days before the July 30th trading deadline dwindled. The Angels (46-47) are now 6-1 / 2 games behind the A’s for second wildcard place in the American League.
First, Cishek had control issues all year round. Although he came into play with a 2.83 ERA, he had run an unsightly 5.4 hitters per nine innings.
That spawned Angels killer Ramon Laureano, whose eight home runs against the Angels are his second most against any team. He’s got three homers against the Angels this season while going 9 for 27 (.333).
Ohtani had retired him twice, but Cishek couldn’t. Cishek threw a slider hanging over the center of the plate and Laureano shot it over the fence in left field to break up a goalless game.
It was the first homer Cishek had allowed in 46 innings, ending the longest active streak in the majors.
Cishek alone didn’t ruin Ohtani’s night as the Angels hadn’t scored any runs for him.
Oakland’s left-hander Cole Irvin had excluded the Angels on four hits for seven innings. The Angels wasted a double running the game from David Fletcher, who came back on the board the day after his 26-game hit streak ended.
In the third, Fletcher tried to score points in midfield with an Ohtani double on the warning track.
Laureano, the midfielder, made a perfect throw to shortstop Elvis Andrus, whose season was on the plate in time to meet Fletcher. The Angels challenged the game, presumably on the basis of catcher Sean Murphy blocking the plate without the ball, but the call was confirmed.
Beyond the bullpen and offensive problems was another great start for Ohtani, who set up for the first time since his perfect first inning in the All-Star Game last week.
Ohtani stroked eight and let one go. He gave up three hits. He wasn’t as efficient as he could have been so he was at 96 seats when manager Joe Maddon went to the bullpen.
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Ohtani ran into some bottlenecks but escaped both with impressive sequences.
In the second, he gave up a one-out double to Mitch Moreland, but then beat Chapman and Laureano. He spun his fastball twice against Laureano up to 98 mph.
An inning later, Ohtani went with # 9 hitter Tony Kemp and then gave up a bloop double for Mark Canha, putting two in goal for the heart of the line-up. Ohtani beat Andrus and he brought fellow All-Star Matt Olson to a groundout.
Matt Olson hit a solo homer for Oakland by Alex Claudio in eighth place.
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