The Los Angeles Angels lost their second consecutive game on Monday night, losing 7-3 to the Tampa Bay Rays. After trailing 5-0 earlier on in the game, Shohei Ohtani and Anthony Rendon made things interesting by hitting two home runs off of Rays ace Tyler Glasnow to make it 5-3.
Raisel Iglesias would ultimately give up a two-run home run to put the game out of reach, but the home runs off Glasnow certainly made things interesting. Glasnow has been phenomenal this season, holding a 2.06 ERA and a 0.870 WHIP after giving up three runs to the Halos.
However, Ohtani simply got the better of him with his ninth home run of the season. While he was supposed to pitch, he had to settle for tying the MLB leaders in home runs. Ohtani now sits in a five-way deadlock with Ronald Acuna Jr., Kris Bryant, Nick Castellanos, and J.D. Martinez.
Glasnow had some extremely kind words for Ohtani after the Angels loss, calling him an impressive player, according to Justice Delos Santos of MLB.com:
“He’s very impressive. Carries himself well. Ginormous human being,” Rays ace Tyler Glasnow said. “He’s a good player, for sure.”
“I threw him a lot of really good curveballs, and he was on it,” Glasnow said. “For the most part, when I throw a pretty good curveball at the bottom of the zone, a lot of guys don’t necessarily get close to it and hit it. I mean, I threw some really good ones and he fouled them off. So I got him once, and then I hung a slider and he got me.”
Glasnow’s slider is his second most frequent pitch, as he’s thrown it 196 times this season. Last night, Ohtani became just the seventh person to get a hit off of that pitch, and even more impressively was only the second person to hit a home run off of it.
At this point, we all know how rare and remarkable a talent Ohtani is. However, it’s still incredible to see opposing players take notice of his abilities. Glasnow is one of the better aces in baseball — especially this season — and even he was impressed by what he saw out of the Angels two-way star.
Jose Quintana struggles again in loss to Rays
Angels starter Jose Quintana has taken the mound five times this season. Including Monday, he has given up at least five runs in three of those starts. He knows he needs to improve, and has spent plenty of time figuring out exactly what is going wrong.
