ANAHEIM, Calif. _ On a night when Shohei Ohtani enhanced the star quality of his rookie year in his first at-bat of the game, and Felix Pena hurled seven quality innings, it was pinch-hitter Jose Briceno's leadoff heroics that snapped the Los Angeles Angels' five-game losing streak and gave them their second walkoff win of the season.
Briceno launched Texas Rangers reliever Matt Moore's third pitch of the 11th inning over the center-field wall for a game-winning homer and a 5-4 victory Monday night at Angel Stadium. Baby powder was thrown at him at home plate. A bucket of ice was dumped over his head during his postgame interview.
All of that in the wake of rookie reliever Ty Buttrey's blown save in the ninth inning, which seemed like it might portend doom for the Angels again.
Ohtani had knocked a first-pitch homer off Rangers starter Adrian Sampson in the first inning. It arced high, reaching a peak of 146 feet according to MLB's Statcast system, before landing in the seats in right-center. Lasers in the ballpark measured the exit velocity of the home run at 112.9 mph _ the hardest-hit ball of Ohtani's campaign.
But the home run's majesty went for naught. So did solo shots Sampson surrendered to Jefry Marte and rookie Michael Hermosillo, who launched the first home run of his career and logged his fifth hit since joining the Angels roster as a September call-up. Even the run Marte scored when reliever Connor Sadzeck's pitch to Hermosillo in the sixth dribbled toward the backstop to give the Angels a 4-3 lead meant little.
Because for the second time in two outings, Buttrey could not hold a lead. He allowed a two-out double to Ronald Guzman in the ninth. Pinch hitter Elvis Andrus then laced a single up the left side of the infield, giving pinch-runner Delino DeShields enough time to score from second base. The Angels contended DeShields missed the bag as he rounded third and called for a replay. Umpires upheld the call on the field.
In his last outing on Saturday, Buttrey was charged with five runs in a loss to Houston after entering in the eighth inning with a 5-1 advantage. For the first time in his short major-league career, which began on Aug. 16, he wasn't able to record an out. He'd allowed only one earned run and held batters to a .185 batting average in his first 14 games.
His last two opponents have not been set down as effortlessly.
But Buttrey's teammates did the rest as the Angels improved to 76-81. Should they win their final five games, the Angels would avoid a third losing season in a row.
