Angels waste back-to-back blasts by stars in loss to Rockies

Angels waste back-to-back blasts by Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout and lose to Rockies

The Rockies' Elias Díaz watches his go-ahead grand slam off Angels reliever Chris Devenski on June 23, 2023.

By Craig Meyer

Associated Press

June 23, 2023 Updated 10:46 PM PT

DENVER — Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout hit back-to-back homers at Coors Field, but Elias Díaz’s go-ahead grand slam in the eighth inning rallied the Colorado Rockies past the Angels 7-4 on Friday night.

Jurickson Profar launched a leadoff homer in the first inning for the Rockies, who ended their longest losing streak of the season at eight games.

Díaz also doubled and finished with three hits. His 426-foot drive to center field marked the first grand slam by a Rockies player since Díaz went deep in Philadelphia on Sept. 10, 2021.

“This win tonight is going to turn around everything — about pitching, about defense, about hitting,” Díaz said. “We’re going to start right now.”

Angels reliever Chris Devenski stands on the mound as the Rockies' Elias Díaz rounds the bases on a grand slam June 23, 2023.

Ohtani smashed his major league-leading 25th home run and was a triple shy of the cycle. He has at least one extra-base hit in 10 consecutive road games, a franchise record and the longest such streak in the majors since 2009.

It was the 200th home run of his professional career, including 151 in the majors.

“I’m going to try my best to hit 201 combined homers between the U.S. and Japan tomorrow,” Ohtani said in a statement provided by the team.

Ohtani’s tiebreaking shot in the fifth was followed by Trout’s 16th of the season, giving the Angels a 4-2 lead. Both drives traveled a projected 434 feet.

It was the ninth time the two superstars have hit back-to-back home runs, tying them for the most in team history with Trout and Albert Pujols.

“The pitch Ohtani hit is a pitch that there’s only one human being on this planet that has any business swinging at that pitch, and that’s him,” Rockies starter Kyle Freeland said.

The Angels' Shohei Ohtani puts the home run hat on Mike Trout after Trout followed Ohtani's blast with his own June 23, 2023.

The Rockies’ Ezequiel Tovar trimmed the Angels’ lead to 4-3 with an RBI single in the sixth.

Entering the night, the Rockies were 12-30 against the Angels — their worst record against any franchise.

The Angels had been 33-5 this season when leading after seven innings.

Elehuris Montero and Coco Montes also had three hits for Colorado. Montes entered with one hit in his last 21 at-bats.

Pierce Johnson (1-3) struck out three in a scoreless eighth for the win, and Justin Lawrence fanned two in a hitless ninth for his third save.

Sam Bachman (1-1) took the loss.

Díaz boosted his home batting average to .348 this season. His grand slam came after the Angels stranded runners on second and third in the eighth, when Johnson ended the threat by coming back from a 3-1 count to strike out Ohtani.

“You can’t leave them out there in this park, and we did it a few times tonight,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said. “You’ve got to have a lot of runs here. It’s hard to say to put teams away because that’s not going to happen, but we certainly didn’t score enough runs to win in this park.”

Trainer’s room

Angels: Nevin said third baseman Anthony Rendon (bruised left wrist) felt “a lot better” after leaving his wrist alone Thursday. Rendon was put on the 10-day injured list Monday.