ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Boston Red Sox were a real buzzkill for the Los Angeles Angels and Shohei Ohtani Tuesday night, the team with a prolific offense and the best record in baseball knocking the seemingly otherworldly two-way star back to terra firma.

A sellout crowd of 44,822, the second-largest since the 1998 renovation of Angel Stadium, packed the house in anticipation of another pitching gem by Ohtani, the Japanese right-hander who was dominant in his first two starts.

Ohtani didn’t make it to the third inning, a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand and the blistering bats of the Red Sox conspiring against him in a 10-1 loss that snapped the Angels’ seven-game win streak. The win was the fifth straight for Boston.

Mookie Betts led off the game with a home run off Ohtani, added a solo shot off Luke Bard in the third and a solo shot off Cam Bedrosian in the eighth for his third career three-homer game.

The Boston right fielder, who walked in his other two plate appearances, was in the on-deck circle when Brock Holt grounded into a double play to end the ninth, denying Betts a shot at becoming the 19th player in major league history to hit four homers in a game.

The Red Sox, who banged out 15 hits and have scored 75 runs in their last nine games for an 8.3-run average, improved to 14-2, the best start in the franchise’s 118-year history.

Ohtani, perfect through 6 1/3 innings of his previous start against Oakland on April 8, needed 66 pitches to record six outs against the Red Sox, who tagged him for three runs and four hits in two innings.

Manager Mike Scioscia said Ohtani was fine in warmups and didn’t have any problems in the first inning, but the blister became a serious issue in the second.

“He didn’t say it was bothering him in warmups, but it had an effect on his command, especially on his off-speed pitches,” Scioscia said. “He got through two innings, but we don’t want it to get any worse. We want him to bounce back for his next start, which we anticipate.”

Ohtani looked uncomfortable on a 67-degree evening, constantly blowing on his pitching hand in search of warmth or moisture. His split-fingered fastball, so devastating against the A’s, was not a factor against the Red Sox, who swung at only one of Ohtani’s 13 dirt-diving pitches, fouling it off.

All of Ohtani’s 18 strikeouts in his first two starts were swinging, and he entered Tuesday with a major league-leading 35.2 percent swinging-strike percentage (strikes swinging without contact/total strikes). He induced only two swings and misses against the Red Sox and struck out one.

Ohtani struggled from the get-go, spiking his first two split-fingered fastballs to Betts into the dirt. Betts drove a full-count 97-mph fastball over the wall in left-center for his 12th career homer to lead off a game, a franchise record.

Ohtani gave up a one-out single to Hanley Ramirez before striking out J.D. Martinez and getting Rafael Devers to pop out to third, but he needed 28 pitches to get out of the first.

Although his fastball sat in the 96-98 mph range and touched 100 mph, Ohtani couldn’t command his split-fingered pitch and slider well enough to fool the Red Sox. Jackie Bradley Jr. singled with one out in the second, and Christian Vazquez drew a seven-pitch walk.

Holt got jammed on a 100-mph fastball but got enough wood on it to poke an opposite-field RBI single to left for a 2-0 lead. Betts capped a nine-pitch at-bat with a walk, and Andrew Benintendi hit a sacrifice fly for a 3-0 lead.

Ramirez grounded out to end an inning in which Ohtani threw 38 pitches. Taxed by his pitch count and clearly ineffective because of the blister, Ohtani was pulled after two innings.

On came Bard, who gave up homers to Bradley (438-foot, two-run shot to right), Holt (376-foot, two-run shot to left) and Betts (417-foot solo shot to left) in the third and Rafael Devers’ 438-foot solo shot to right in the fourth.

Boston left-hander David Price, who left his previous start after one inning because of a sensation in his pitching hand, allowed one run and three hits in five innings, striking out six and walking four, to earn the win.

His last pitch was taken for a third strike by Albert Pujols, who slammed his helmet to the ground in protest of umpire Vic Carapazza’s call to end the fifth and earned his ninth career ejection. Pujols singled for career hit No. 2,989 in the third.

Related Stories