Two-way star Shohei Ohtani recorded the 100th home run of his combined pro career in Japan and the United States on Wednesday, a day after he threw four scoreless innings for the Los Angeles Angels in his second pitching start of the season.
In a 7-4 loss to the Texas Rangers, Ohtani batted second as the designated hitter and hit a solo shot off Texas starter Mike Foltynewicz in the third inning to put the home team ahead 2-0 at Angel Stadium in Anaheim.
"It's good I got at least one hit today," said Ohtani, who finished the day 1-for-3.
"Both first homers (in Japan and the U.S.) are memorable. They're both special," he said when asked which of his 100 home runs are most prominent in his memory.
He belted his first homer in Japan in his 92nd at-bat of his rookie season in 2013, and his first major league homer in his first at-bat of his first home game with the Angels in 2018.
Ohtani is in the ninth season of his professional career. He played five seasons for the Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan's Pacific League before joining the Angels on a minor-league contract, his transfer regulated by Major League Baseball's collective-bargaining agreement.
His third-inning solo shot was his 52nd homer with the Angels and fifth of the season.
The Angels took a 3-1 lead through the seventh, but relief pitcher Mike Mayers (1-1) gave up a go-ahead, three-run homer to Adolis Garcia in the top of the eighth that turned the Angels' two-run lead into a one-run deficit. The next batter, Nate Lowe, also went deep off Mayers.
At Oakland Coliseum, Kenta Maeda gave up a career-worst-tying seven runs and eight hits in three innings -- his shortest outing of the season -- as the Oakland Athletics' win streak reached 11 with a wild extra-innings victory over the visiting Minnesota Twins.
The 10-inning thriller that lasted over four hours featured seven lead changes and seven homers and resulted in a 13-12 final score, ending in a walk-off two-run error.
Maeda surrendered three runs in the bottom of the second to allow Oakland to build a 3-1 lead. His struggles continued in the third when he allowed a pair of two-run homers to Matt Olson and Seth Brown to get chased from the game with the Athletics holding a 7-4 lead.
The Japanese right-hander was also charged with a run-scoring wild pitch and a hit batsman.
"I threw too many off-speed pitches down the middle and hitters took advantage of that," said Maeda, the 2020 American League Cy Young Award runner-up.
"I've had some disappointing pitching performances recently, so I hope I can shift gears and bounce back strong in my next start."
