Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge got lost in the pitching duel between Angels starter Patrick Sandoval and New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole. Through their first two at-bats, Ohtani and Judge were hitless. Judge struck out twice, and Ohtani hit a fly-out and a pop-out.
Then in the sixth inning, Ohtani declared himself the most valuable player.
With two on and one out and the Angels trailing by two runs, the baseball titan sized up Cole's 2-and-0 four-seam fastball and hit it 107 miles per hour into the hedges behind the center-field wall. Ohtani trotted around the bases, and David Fletcher, who reached on a single, and Mike Trout, who reached base on a fielding error, waited to greet him after he touched home plate.
His homer was a no-doubter when it left his bat and fueled the Angels' 3-2 comeback win. Cole didn't need to turn around to know where Ohtani was sending his pitch. Cole lightly slapped his glove in response to his mistake. And Yankee center fielder Aaron Hicks could only stand and watch as the ball disappeared behind the wall.
Ohtani had been itching at a big extra-base hit all night.
He was robbed of a potential two-run home run off of Cole in the first inning. His fly-out was secured in one fluid motion by Hicks, who hopped up to make the catch before it cleared the center-field wall.
Ohtani didn't muster enough against Cole in his second at-bat either, hitting a pop-out to Josh Donaldson at third in the fourth inning.
Cole kept the Angels scoreless until his mistake to Ohtani in the sixth. The Angels did get six hits off of Cole, in addition to the three runs (only two earned). .
Sandoval, meanwhile, had been picking apart the American League East-leading Yankees until a tricky fifth inning.
He struck out Judge on four pitches in the first inning, the final whiff coming on Sandoval's signature 1-and-2 changeup. He got Judge again in the fourth inning with his equally sharp 1-and-2 slider, which Judge foul-tipped into the catcher's glove for strike three.
In Judge's final meeting with the Angels left-handed pitcher, he drew a a seven-pitch walk, but was forced out at second on a grounder by fellow slugger Giancarlo Stanton.
Sandoval pitched a 1-2-3 first inning, including back-to-back strikeouts of Andrew Benintendi and then Judge, then followed that with a clean second inning. By the time Sandoval cleared through the top of the Yankees order for a second time — with the last two outs coming on strikeouts of Judge and Stanton — Sandoval was fired up.
He walked off the mound after that last out of the fourth inning, yelling and pumping his fist in celebration.
It was Hicks who got the first hit off of Sandoval in the third inning, a ground ball that skittered between third baseman Matt Duffy and shortstop David Fletcher. Hicks didn't make it much farther than first base. Sandoval got Isiah Kiner-Falefa to hit a grounder to Fletcher, who quickly threw the ball to Luis Rengifo at second for the force out.
Donaldson hit a double off of Sandoval in the fifth inning and later scored the first run of the game.
Donaldson's double, a grounder that bounced erratically along the third-base line, hit the dirt mere feet in front of Duffy, who wasn't able to catch the ball before it bounced by him and went to the corner where on-field security and the ball boy sat in left.
That was followed by Sandoval's wild pitch to Gleyber Torres, which allowed Donaldson to advance to third. Torres doubled off Sandoval, scoring Donaldson. Hicks' sacrifice fly allowed Torres to score and the Yankees to take a 2-0 lead over the Angels in the fifth inning.
Ohtani's home run gave Sandoval a chance to leave the mound with the Angels in the lead.
Sandoval finished his night after seven innings, giving up three hits, two earned runs, walking two and striking out seven.
Judge and Stanton worked walks off of Angels reliever Jimmy Herget in the ninth inning but were stranded, securing the Angels win.
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