NEW YORK — Shohei Ohtani had a forgettable Bronx debut last season, lasting just two-thirds of an inning in what would be a come-from-behind Angels victory.
His second outing on the Stadium stage wasn’t significantly better.
And this time, thanks to more brilliance by Nestor Cortes and home runs from Matt Carpenter, Gleyber Torres, Aaron Judge, and DJ LeMahieu, there would be no Angels comeback in the Yankees' 6-1 win in the first game of Wednesday’s split doubleheader.
A fierce storm arrived with the Angels coming to bat in the ninth and umpire crew chief Dan Iassogna called for the tarp just in time before the field was flooded. The game was delayed for 1 hour, 28 minutes.
Ohtani, 3-3 with a 3.45 ERA in nine starts coming in, including 3-1 with a 2.50 ERA in his last six starts, did not make it out of the fourth, helping send the Angels (27-24) to their seventh straight loss. The righthander, who went 1-for-5 as the Angels' DH, allowed four runs, eight hits and one walk. Ohtani, who struck out 49 in his previous 36 innings, generated few swings-and-misses Thursday in recording only two strikeouts.
Cortes (5-1, 1.50), meanwhile, continued his charge toward Los Angeles and July’s All-Star Game. The lefthander allowed five hits and two walks over seven scoreless innings in which he struck out seven.
Cortes, in addition to severely outpitching Ohtani, picked him off first after a leadoff single in the fifth.
The Yankees (35-15) boosted their MLB-leading homer total to 73. Judge has an MLB-best 19.
Cortes struck out leadoff man Taylor Ward looking at a fastball to begin his outing, retired Ohtani on a groundout to second, then struck out Mike Trout swinging at a cutter to end the 19-pitch inning.
Carpenter, signed by the Yankees last Thursday before their series at Tampa Bay, battled Ohtani in an 11-pitch at-bat, before crushing the final one, a full-count cutter, just inside the foul pole and well into the second deck in right, his third hit with the club — all of them homers — making it 1-0. Torres, swinging at a first-pitch, 97-mph fastball, took it over the wall in right with two outs for his 10th homer (he hit nine all of last season).
Cortes got into trouble in the second but kept the lead. Matt Duffy reached on an infield single and, after consecutive strikeouts of Luis Rengifo and Max Stassi, Jared Walsh singled and Juan Lagares walked to load the bases. Andrew Velazquez, a Bronx native and Yankee last season, sliced a ground smash to first where Anthony Rizzo made a diving stop toward the line to save at least one run and likely two.
Judge made it 3-0 in the third, leading off the inning by roping a 1-and-2 slider to left, making it 10 homers in his last 21 games. Judge was bathed in “MVP! MVP!” chants as he walked back to the dugout after crossing the plate.
The Yankees drove Ohtani from the game in the fourth. Aaron Hicks led off with his second of three hits in the game and Jose Trevino followed with a single, ending Ohtani’s day as he was replaced by lefty Jose Quijada. Marwin Gonzalez greeted the new pitcher with an RBI double to left to make it 4-0.
LeMahieu’s leadoff homer, his fourth, off lefty Jhonathan Diaz in the fifth made it 5-0 and Miguel Andujar, pinch hitting for the lefty-swinging Carpenter, hit a sacrifice fly later in the inning to score Hicks, who collected his third hit with a one-out single.
Cortes needed just four pitches to retire the Angels in order in the sixth and seven pitches to do the same in the seventh.
Clarke Schmidt allowed a run in the eighth to make it 6-1. He left with the bases loaded and two outs, but Wandy Peralta got Jared Walsh to fly to left.
