had thrown only 71 pitches.
“I was getting lots of swings and misses and I was able to keep my pitch count low, until that last inning,” Ohtani said through his interpreter. “That last inning, I really regret.”
Ohtani walked Dansby Swanson to start the inning. His 0-and-1 splitter to Matt Olson was up too much, and Olson whacked it over the right-field fence. It was Olson’s second hit, and first homer, in 16 career at-bats against Ohtani.
Austin Riley then ripped a single into center field. Travis d’Arnaud dropped a bloop hit inside the right-field line. Eddie Rosario lined a single through the drawn-in infield, making it 3-0.
“I had (Aaron) Loup up for Rosario, and looking back I probably should have gotten him,” Nevin said. “But you look at (Ohtani) as invincible sometimes. ... I should have gotten him before that. That’s on me.”
An out later, Ohtani hung a first-pitch slider to Orlando Arcia, who hit it a couple of rows deep into the left-field seats, making it 6-0.
“The two homers I gave up there were obviously bad pitches,” Ohtani said. “They deserved to get hit as home runs, especially against a great team like the Braves. The other base hits I gave up were good pitches. A little unluckiness.”
Ohtani allowed six runs in one inning after allowing just two in his previous 45 2/3 innings. It equaled the most runs he had allowed in a game this season.
Although in the end it looks like a game that was lost because of bad pitching, for most of the night the Angels’ bad hitting was the issue.
They struck out another 13 times, adding to their major league-leading total. They had only five hits.
Taylor Ward and Luis Rengifo had two of them, back-to-back singles to start the fourth, giving the Angels runners at the corners with no outs. After Jared Walsh struck out, Jo Adell walked to load the bases. Jonathan Villar hit into a double play.
They left two on in the fifth and wasted a leadoff baserunner in the sixth and a one-out single in the seventh.
Villar homered in the ninth for their only run.
“We just didn’t get that big hit,” Nevin said. “That’s what’s happened a lot lately. You think after the break, we get that big one here, it would change some stuff. Just get one across with Shohei on the mound. We just didn’t get it.”