Los Angeles’ Shohei Ohtani hits his 40th home run in the eighth inning Wednesday night against the Tigers at Detroit. Paul Sancya/Associated Press
DETROIT — Shohei Ohtani hit his 40th homer and pitched eight sharp innings, helping the Los Angeles Angels beat Miguel Cabrera and the Detroit Tigers 3-1 on Wednesday.
The crowd of 27,282 was hoping to see Cabrera hit his 500th career homer, but the slugger went 1 for 3 with first-inning single.
Instead, Ohtani put on a show.
The Japanese right-hander allowed six hits, struck out eight and walked none. He also became the first major leaguer to hit 40 homers in a season in which he pitched at least 15 games. The previous record was 29 by Babe Ruth in 1919.
Rasiel Iglesias pitched a perfect ninth for his 27th save, retiring Cabrera on a fly ball to the warning track in right.
TWINS 8, INDIANS 7: Jorge Polanco drove in the game-ending run for the third time in four games, lining a bases-loaded single in the 11th inning as Minnesota won at home.
The Twins survived after blowing a two-run lead in the ninth and nearly won it in the 10th. Cleveland third baseman Ernie Clement leaped to rob Luis Arraez of a hit and center fielder Myles Straw made a two-out diving catch of a liner from Ryan Jeffers.
Polanco, who also had a first-inning RBI single, ended Monday’s game against Cleveland with a 10th-inning double. A day earlier, his walk-off sacrifice fly in the ninth gave the Twins a win over Tampa Bay.
RAYS 8, ORIOLES 4: Ryan Yarbrough came off the COVID-19 injured list and worked five scoreless innings as AL East-leading Tampa Bay handed visiting Baltimore its 14th consecutive loss.
Baltimore, which also had a 14-game skid from May 18-31, joined the Boston Braves as the only teams to have a pair of 14-game or longer losing streaks in the same season since 1901. The Braves did it twice, in 1911 and 1935.
MARINERS 3, RANGERS 1: Kyle Seager hit a two-run homer on the game’s third at-bat, Marco Gonzales pitched 5 1/3 shutout innings and Seattle won at Arlington, Texas.
ROYALS 3, ASTROS 2: Hunter Dozier hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh inning, and host Kansas City won its third straight over Houston.
Dozier homered off reliever Blake Taylor to help the Royals post their 31st come-from-behind victory of the season, fourth-most in the American League.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
METS 6, GIANTS 2: Kevin Pillar hit a three-run home run in the 12th inning, lifting visiting New York over San Francisco hours after the team’s owner called out its hitters for a lack of production.
With his club stuck in a five-game skid, Mets owner Steve Cohen tweeted Wednesday morning that “it’s hard to understand how professional hitters can be this unproductive. The best teams have a more disciplined approach. The slugging and OPS numbers don’t lie.”
The barbs hardly seemed to inspire New York early on. Six pitchers combined to blank the Mets until the ninth inning, when J.D. Davis provided a tying sacrifice fly.
The Mets’ offense finally broke through in earnest in extras. The teams traded runs in the 11th before the Mets scored four runs against Tyler Chatwood (1-3) in the 12th. Pillar – a former Giants player – broke a 2-2 tie with his 10th homer of the year, and Chance Sisco added an RBI double to make it 6-2.
Mets Manager Luis Rojas addressed Cohen’s statement before the game and said the players and coaches needed to be held “accountable” for their results.
“I’m aware of the tweet from Steve,” Rojas said. “We’re working really hard every day. We’re trying to find our way to win some games.”
Entering Wednesday, the Mets’ 450 runs were third-fewest in MLB, ahead of only Texas (446) and Pittsburgh (431).
Michael Conforto also had an RBI for the Mets. Lamonte Wade Jr. and Tommy La Stella recorded RBI for San Francisco.
BRAVES 11, MARLINS 9: Freddie Freeman hit for the cycle for the second time and surging Braves won at Miami.
The reigning NL MVP doubled in the first, tripled in the fourth, singled in the fifth and hit his 27th homer, a two-run blast, in the sixth.
Freeman became the first Braves player to hit for the cycle twice after also accomplishing the feat against Cincinnati June 15, 2016, according to Atlanta. It is the seventh cycle in franchise history. He went 9 for 13 in the three-game series sweep against Miami.
The NL East-leading Braves have won six straight and 13 of 15 while sweeping its last three road series.
CUBS 7, REDS 1: Michael Hermosillo homered for the first time since 2018, Ian Happ and Sergio Alcantara also went deep, and visiting Chicago took 2 of 3 from Cincinnati.
Frank Schwindel and Rafael Ortega also drove in runs for the Cubs, who ended a 12-game skid a day earlier. Schwindel, Chicago’s regular first baseman since Anthony Rizzo was dealt to the Yankees at the deadline, had six hits in the series and is batting .329.
Adrian Sampson, called up from Triple-A Iowa earlier in the day to pitch in the majors for the first time since 2019, held the suddenly quiet Reds to one run and five hits in four innings.
ROCKIES 7, PADRES 5: Jake Arrieta got clobbered by host Colorado and left with an injury in his Padres debut.
C.J. Cron had two hits and three RBI and Trevor Story homered for the Rockies, who scored five runs in 3 1/3 innings against Arrieta before he departed with an injured left hamstring.
Arrieta (5-12) was signed Monday after being placed on waivers by the Chicago Cubs. He allowed seven hits and let his ERA rise to 7.13 on Dom Nunez’s solo homer before grabbing his hamstring and exiting the game.
Wil Myers homered twice for the slumping Padres. San Diego has lost 7 of 8 but still leads Cincinnati by 1 1/2 games for the second NL wild card.
INTERLEAGUE
NATIONALS 8, BLUE JAYS 5: Josh Bell hit a three-run homer off former teammate Brad Hand, and Washington beat visiting Toronto.
Juan Soto and Carter Kieboom also connected for Washington, which won back-to-back games for the first time since July 27-29. The Nationals had dropped 12 of 13 prior to the two-game interleague series.
Marcus Semien homered twice and Teoscar Hernandez went deep for the fourth consecutive game for Toronto, which has lost 5 of 6 since reaching a season-high 11 games over .500 on Aug. 11.
Hand (5-7), who was acquired on July 29 as part of Washington’s sell-off at the trade deadline, entered with one on in the seventh and Toronto clinging to a 5-4 lead. After Soto walked, Bell hit a drive to right for his 20th homer. Two batters later, Kieboom tacked on a solo shot to left.
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