Shohei Ohtani, Brandon Drury lead Angels to rout over Athletics

Patrick Sandoval’s outing against the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday was much improved from his last start in New York.

Pitching the deepest he has in a game so far this season, Sandoval helped the Angels to 11-3 win, which put the team back above .500. He gave up three runs, two earned, on six hits, one batter hit and five struck over seven innings and threw his most pitches in a game so far this season, 105.

He walked off the mound after the last out of that seventh, a ground out by Esteury Ruiz that Sandoval helped induce, clapping his glove and then high-fiving his teammates in the dugout.

“I want them to pitch deeper into games and learn how to pitch deeper into games,” manager Phil Nevin said after the game. “I know Sandy’s done it before but for the first time this year, we’re getting into that 100 mark and into the seventh and did find that he got stronger as the night went on.”

Backing up that effort was the Angels offense, which picked apart the lowly A’s, racking up 12 hits along the way.

In the second inning alone, seven Angels reached base safely on a combination of four hits, a walk and a throwing error. Brandon Drury, Matt Thaiss, Zach Neto and Shohei Ohtani combined for five RBIs that inning.

Thaiss’ RBI helped temporarily gloss over the throwing error he made in the first inning. In an attempt to prevent Ruiz from successfully stealing second, Thaiss threw to Drury at second base. The throw sailed over Drury’s head, which allowed Ruiz to reach third. Ruiz went on to score on Brent Rooker’s ground out later that inning. Ruiz was actually able to steal four bases on Wednesday.

Hunter Renfroe, Drury and Ohtani put the exclamation marks on the Angels offense in the third, fifth and eighth innings with a solo home run and 2 two-run blasts.

Though those runs merely extended the Angels’ existing lead, they helped get back the two earned runs Sandoval was charged with — one of which came on a solo home run Sandoval gave up to Kevin Smith to start the third inning.

Chase Silseth pitched a six-out save to secure the win for the Angels.

One step closer

Rookie catcher Logan O’Hoppe had successful surgery to repair his the torn labrum in his left shoulder on Tuesday.

Back in the Angels clubhouse to see Wednesday’s game, he said that he started feeling better a few hours after the surgery and even tried to make it back for Tuesday’s win over the A’s.

O’Hoppe will be in a sling for about three weeks. His expected recovery and return is an estimated four to six months.