MINNEAPOLIS — Shohei Ohtani hit his first home run of the season for the Los Angeles Angels, a towering two-run shot in the third inning against Minnesota ace Jose Berrios that fueled a 5-4 victory over the Twins on Monday night.
Ohtani, who made his 2019 debut last week in his return from Tommy John elbow surgery, reached base on four of his five plate appearances. His 429-foot drive off the videoboard facade beneath the second deck in left-center field was the highlight of a three-run, five-hit third inning. The AL Rookie of the Year went deep 22 times in 326 at-bats in 2018.
Tommy La Stella hit the go-ahead homer against Berrios (6-2) in the sixth, his team-leading 10th long ball of the season in 36 games.
Jorge Polanco and Marwin Gonzalez each hit two-run homers off Angels starter Tyler Skaggs (4-3), but the Twins weren’t able to overcome this uncharacteristic vulnerability by their All-Star right-hander. Berrios allowed five runs and a career-high 12 hits in 5 2/3 innings, his shortest start of the year, while walking three.
The Angels improved to 5-2 on their current road trip, striking first against a Twins team that took the best record in baseball into the evening.
WHITE SOX 5, INDIANS 2
CHICAGO — Yoán Moncada hit two of Chicago’s four solo homers and Reynaldo López pitched 7 2/3 effective innings in a win over Cleveland.
José Abreu and Welington Castillo also connected for Chicago, which earned its third straight win. The White Sox improved to 4-3 against the Indians this season after they went 5-14 against the Tribe last year.
López (3-4) allowed one earned run and two hits, struck out six and walked two. It was the right-hander’s first win since he fanned 14 in a 4-1 victory over Detroit on April 28.
Francisco Lindor hit his 13th career leadoff homer for Cleveland, which lost for the third time in four games. Lindor also hit a sacrifice fly in the third, singled in the sixth and walked in the eighth, but that was pretty much it for the light-hitting Indians.
Shane Bieber (2-2) allowed five runs and seven hits in 6 1/3 innings in the first road loss of his career.
ASTROS 8, TIGERS 1
DETROIT — Aledmys Diaz, Robinson Chirinos, Jake Marisnick and Alex Bregman homered for Houston, which extended its winning streak to six games with the win over Detroit.
Brad Peacock (4-2) allowed a run and three hits in five innings for Houston, which has won nine of its last 10 games. The AL West-leading Astros knocked Matthew Boyd (4-3) out of the game in four innings, the shortest start of the season for the Detroit lefty. He allowed three runs and five hits and threw 96 pitches.
Houston got homers from its No. 6, 8 and 9 hitters before Bregman added his 13th of the year. The Astros scored three runs in a three-batter span in the second inning, then added two more in the seventh and three in the ninth.
Grayson Greiner hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth for the Tigers.
PHILLIES 7, BREWERS 4
PHILADELPHIA — J.T. Realmuto doubled in the go-ahead run in the seventh inning, Cesar Hernandez hit a two-run homer and Philadelphia beat Milwaukee.
Lorenzo Cain had a career-high five hits and Mike Moustakas homered for Milwaukee.
Bryce Harper struck out three times and was hitless in four at-bats. He made a diving catch with two outs, the bases loaded and scored tied in the seventh.
The NL East-leading Phillies rallied in the bottom half. Jean Segura struck out swinging but reached on a wild pitch by Matt Albers (2-2). Junior Guerra struck out Rhys Hoskins. Realmuto ripped a double to left-center to score Segura for a 5-4 lead. After Hernandez walked, Odubel Herrera extended the lead to 7-4 with a two-run double.
Phillies ace Aaron Nola lasted only three innings, giving up three runs and five hits on a cold night following a 52-minute rain delay at the start. Adam Morgan (2-1) got four outs for the win and Pat Neshek finished for his second save.
Brewers starter Freddy Peralta allowed two runs — one earned — and seven hits in four innings, striking out five.
DIAMONDBACKS 9, PIRATES 3
PHOENIX — Eduardo Escobar homered, tripled and drove in three runs, Christian Walker also went deep and Arizona cruised past Pittsburgh.
Robbie Ray (3-1) allowed one earned run and six hits over five innings. He recorded his 800th career strikeout when he fanned Pirates pitcher Nick Kingham (1-1) to end the top of the fourth inning.
David Peralta had two hits and drove in two runs. Alex Avila reached base four times and drove in a run as Arizona ended a three-game losing streak.
In his second start after opening the season in the bullpen, Kingham (1-1) gave up seven runs and 10 hits in four innings.
Josh Bell, Bryan Reynolds and Melky Cabrera drove in a run each for the Pirates, whose three-game winning streak was stopped.
MARINERS 6, ATHLETICS 5
SEATTLE — Domingo Santana hit a tying two-out RBI double in the bottom of the 10th inning and then scored the winning run on Omar Narvaez’s single, and the Seattle Mariners rallied for a win over the Oakland Athletics on Monday night.
Ramon Laureano hit a solo home run with two outs in the top of the 10th, the last of Oakland’s five solo homers, to give the A’s the lead. But Seattle had one rally left, all of it coming with two outs against Joakim Soria (1-3).
Daniel Vogelbach, whose three-run homer in the eighth tied the score at 4-4, walked. Pinch-runner Dee Gordon stole second and jogged home when Santana hit a 2-2 pitch from Soria just fair down the left-field line to pull Seattle even at 5-all. Narvaez followed with a single to left field and Santana scored well ahead of Robbie Grossman’s throw.
Oakland starter Mike Fiers and his bid for consecutive no-hitters had long been finished before the crazy 10th inning. Laureano homered on a 1-2 pitch from Brandon Brennan (2-2), his fifth home run of the season.
Khris Davis homered twice for Oakland, ending a monthlong drought without a long ball for last year’s AL leader. Davis hit his 10th home run on April 12 against Texas, but had none in his next 70 at-bats before golfing an 0-2 pitch into the left-field bullpens in the sixth inning. Seattle starter Yusei Kikuchi had retired 10 straight before Davis connected.
