ANAHEIM, Calif. _ Maybe hits are overrated. The Los Angeles Angels accumulated only four of them Sunday but scored four of their five runs on outs _ three on sacrifice flies _ in a 5-2 victory over Tampa Bay that snapped the Angels' five-game losing streak and the Rays' six-game win streak.
Shohei Ohtani allowed two runs and six hits in a career-high 7 2/3 innings in Angel Stadium, striking out nine, walking one and throwing a career-high 110 pitches to improve to 4-1 with a 3.35 ERA, using his devastating split-fingered fastball and sharp slider to notch seven of his strikeouts.
Ohtani retired 12 in a row after giving up a Johnny Field homer to open the third inning before running into trouble in the seventh when Wilson Ramos led off with a single to left and took second on Matt Duffy's one-out single to right-center.
Mallex Smith sent a drive to the warning track that left fielder Justin Upton hauled in, and Daniel Robertson sent a shot to deep center that Chris Young went to the wall to catch, as the Angels preserved a 3-1 lead.
The Angels added an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh for a 4-1 lead but wobbled again in the eighth when Field led off with a ground-rule double to right, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Denard Span's groundout to cut the deficit to 4-2.
Ohtani struck out C.J. Cron with a slider for the second out but gave up a single to Joey Wendle. Angels manager Mike Scioscia summoned right-hander Justin Anderson, who walked Ramos on four pitches but rebounded by striking out Brad Miller on three pitches to snuff out the threat.
Martin Maldonado led off the bottom of the eighth with a homer to left, his second of the season, to give the Angels a 5-2 lead, and Blake Parker struck out two of four batters in a scoreless ninth for the save.
The Angels went four batters into the fourth inning without a hit against Sergio Romo, who became the first major league pitcher to start games on consecutive days since Zack Greinke in 2012, and relievers Matt Andriese and Jose Alvarado.
Yet, they were still able to forge their first lead since Tuesday night, thanks to Andriese's fielding error on an Andrelton Simmons grounder, a walk to Zack Cozart and a wild pitch to open the fourth, a sequence that put Angels runners on second and third with no outs.
Scioscia broke up a starting lineup consisting of nine right-handed hitters by calling on the left-handed-hitting Luis Valbuena, who hit for Jefry Marte and grounded out to second to score the tying run and advance Cozart to third.
Rays manager Kevin Cash summoned Alvarado, a left-hander, to face Maldonado, who smacked a sacrifice fly to center to give the Angels a 2-1 lead.
Young followed with a double to left-center, the Angels' first hit of the game, and Michael Hermosillo was hit by a pitch, but both runners were stranded when Ian Kinsler popped out to second.
The Angels extended the lead to 3-1 in the fifth when Mike Trout led off with a walk, his second of three in the game, stole second and third and scored with a head-first slide into the plate on Cozart's sacrifice fly to medium right field.
Trout used his speed to help generate a tack-on run in the seventh when he walked, took third on Simmons' one-out single to right field and scored _ with another head-first slide into the plate _ on Cozart's sacrifice fly to center.
Tampa Bay took a 1-0 lead in the third when Field, the No. 9 hitter, drove Ohtani's first pitch of the inning, a 94-mph fastball that was low and inside _ not a poorly placed pitch _ over the wall in left-center for his fourth homer of the season.
Cash's strategy of using Romo, a short reliever, to start against the Angels' predominantly right-handed lineup worked so well Saturday night, when Romo struck out the side in the first inning of a 5-3 win, that he used it again Sunday.
It marked the first time in franchise history the Angels faced the same starting pitcher in consecutive days. The last time it was done in the big leagues, Greinke was ejected after four pitches in the first game of those back-to-backs for spiking the ball in the dirt following a close play at first base.
Romo struck out three and walked two in 1 1/3 scoreless innings before yielding to Andriese.
The Angels entered the game mired in a nine-game offensive funk in which they hit .193 with a .580 on-base-plus-slugging percentage and averaged 2.3 runs a game. They lost seven of those games, their only wins 2-1 victories over Minnesota and Houston.
