ATLANTA — The Atlanta Braves have sold out the first two games of this weekend’s series against the Angels, likely with many fans eager to get a look at Shohei Ohtani.
The weekend couldn’t be going much better for them.
A night after watching Ohtani pitch six dominant innings before imploding in a game the Braves won, they saw Ohtani hit a homer in a game the Braves won.
Ohtani’s 20th homer of the season was a footnote in the Angels’ 7-2 loss to the Braves, a game that got out of hand early because of a sloppy start from Patrick Sandoval.
Manager Phil Nevin wasn’t around to see the end of it, having been ejected in the fifth inning.
Nevin was seemingly still upset about a call that didn’t go the Angels way in the fourth. Austin Warren believed he had struck out Austin Riley to end the inning, but first base umpire John Bacon ruled that Riley didn’t swing. Riley hit a two-run homer on the next pitch.
Sandoval had no bad calls to blame.
He was charged with five runs in three innings, one of his worst starts of the season.
Sandoval gave up a double to Ronald Acuña Jr. to lead off the game. Acuña smoked a line drive that third baseman Jonathan Villar couldn’t handle, as the ball shot past him into left field. Acuña then scored on a single by Dansby Swanson.
After a strikeout and a single, Sandoval appeared to be out of the inning when he got catcher Travis d’Arnaud to hit a routine double play grounder to Villar. His throw to second was wide, though, so second baseman Michael Stefanic had to stretch to make the play, preventing him from getting off the throw to first. That allowed a second run to score.
In the third inning, Sandoval gave up four more singles, accounting for three runs. This time the Angels defense helped him avoid an even bigger inning. Right fielder Dillon Thomas made a diving catch in right for the second out. Left fielder Taylor Ward threw out Orlando Arcia trying to go to third for the final out.
That was nonetheless the end of Sandoval’s 80-pitch night.
Villar had a rough night, too.
Aside from the two plays in the first, neither of which was ruled an error, he made two errors later in the game. In the fourth he smothered a ball hit to his left an then made an ill-advised attempt to still throw to first, and the ball went out of play. In the fifth, he booted a routine grounder.
The only positive on the night for the Angels was the performance of Jared Walsh, who doubled twice and singled. Walsh also doubled in his final at-bat on Friday night.
A Georgia native playing his first big league games in Atlanta, Walsh came into the series in a 3-for-40 slump.
