OAKLAND — Once the Angels returned to action Saturday, it didn’t take them long to bury the frustration of an Opening Day loss and the controversy that followed on the subsequent day off.
The Angels exploded for 11 runs in the third inning of a 13-1 pummeling of the Oakland A’s.
It made for a much happier walk from the dugout to the clubhouse than on Thursday night, when the Angels were stinging from a one-run loss just as third baseman Anthony Rendon engaged in an altercation with a fan.
The Angels are still waiting to hear from Major League Baseball to find out if Rendon will face any discipline, but in the meantime they took care of their on-field business with a comfortable victory.
For the first two innings, the Angels had no answers for Japanese right-hander Shintaro Fujinami, who was making his big-league debut. The Angels went in order, with four strikeouts against his assortment of 99 mph fastballs and diving splitters.
In the third, though, the Angels knocked Fujinami out quickly.
Luis Rengifo walked and Gio Urshela, Logan O’Hoppe and Taylor Ward had consecutive hits, producing two runs. Mike Trout walked to load the bases.
Shohei Ohtani – who had faced Fujinami in high school in Japan – smoked a line drive off the left-field fence. Runners had to hold in case it was caught, so it went as a single, scoring one more run.
Rendon hit a sacrifice fly. Hunter Renfroe walked. Jake Lamb singled, ending Fujinami’s day.
Rengifo then walked again. Urshela singled again. O’Hoppe hit a sacrifice fly. Ward then blasted a two-run homer, completing the 11-run outburst.
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Angels starter Patrick Sandoval was the beneficiary of the outburst, picking up a victory with five innings of work on 86 pitches. He gave up just one run on a Ramon Laureano homer.
Left-hander Tucker Davidson pitched the final four innings. Davidson is expected to be the Angels’ No. 6 starter, but they don’t need him to fill that role until April 12, so it was convenient to get him some work in a blowout to start sharp.
More to come on this story.