Jose Siri hit a game-winning single in the 10th inning, Mike Trout and Logan O’Hoppe homered, and the Angels beat the Houston Astros 3-2 on Wednesday night.
Angels starter Reid Detmers retired his first 15 batters before Shay Whitcomb homered leading off the sixth. Chase Silseth replaced Detmers to begin the eighth and gave up a leadoff homer to Cam Smith that tied it 2-all.
Houston nearly took the lead in the ninth. Yordan Alvarez singled with two out and Christian Walker followed with a double that appeared to score Alvarez. But the Angels challenged the safe call at home plate and it was overturned following a replay review.
Bryan Abreu (2-3) came on for the Astros in the 10th and pinch-hitter Donovan Walton hit a leadoff single that moved automatic runner Nick Madrigal from second to third. Siri, facing one of his former teams, then hit an 0-2 pitch to left field to drive in Madrigal.
Ryan Zeferjahn (3-3) worked a scoreless inning for the win.
Trout launched his 15th homer to open the scoring in the first, and O’Hoppe’s drive with two out in the fifth made it 2-0.
Peter Lambert gave up two runs and five hits with six strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings for Houston.
Detmers permitted only one hit over seven innings. He struck out nine and walked none. The left-hander is third in the American League with 97 strikeouts and has given up three or fewer earned runs in eight of his last nine starts.
Wade Meckler and Jo Adell keyed a five-run second inning with two-run doubles, and Walbert Ureña navigated heavy traffic through five shutout innings to lead the Angels to a 10-1 victory over the Houston Astros on Tuesday night.
Houston put two runners on in the first, second and fifth and loaded the bases in the third, but Ureña (4-4) pitched out of each jam to lower his ERA to 2.44 on the season and 1.84 in eight starts since early May.
The 22-year-old right-hander gave up three hits, struck out seven and walked five in his 107-pitch effort, which included a 97-mph fastball to whiff Joey Loperfido with the bases loaded to end the third.
The Angels scored two unearned runs off starter Kai-Wei Teng (3-5) in the first, one when Nolan Schanuel was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and the other on Oswald Peraza’s RBI grounder.
Backup catcher Sebastián Rivero sparked the Angels’ second-inning rally with a one-out single. Zach Neto was hit by a pitch and Mike Trout ended an 0-for-22 slump with a single to load the bases.
Meckler doubled to left-center for two runs and a 4-0 lead. Adell doubled to left to make it 6-0, and Peraza’s RBI groundout extended it to 7-0.
The Angels added three insurance runs in the eighth on Trey Mancini’s sacrifice fly and RBI groundouts by Peraza and Denzer Guzman. Relievers Brent Suter, Drew Pomeranz and Kirby Yates covered the final four innings.
Schanuel, who has been slowed by a left ankle injury, exited after three innings because of left calf tightness.
Rivero, who also singled in the third and has seven hits in his last seven at-bats, was removed in the fifth because of a left wrist injury.
Jack Kochanowicz to have Tommy John surgery
Angels pitcher Jack Kochanowicz needs Tommy John surgery, the team said Tuesday, and the 25-year-old right-hander is expected to be sidelined through the 2027 season.
The Angels also said that third baseman Yoán Moncada will have surgery on his balky right-knee. But, the specifics of the procedure and a timetable for the switch-hitter’s return were not known.
Kochanowicz went 2-5 with a 6.19 ERA in 13 starts this season, striking out 47 and walking 36 in 64 innings.
The hard-throwing sinker-ball specialist went 2-1 with a 3.05 ERA in his first seven starts, but was ineffective during his next six starts, going 0-4 with an 11.91 ERA, striking out 17 and walking 15 in 22 2/3 innings.
Kochanowicz’s fastball averaged 97 mph and touched 99 mph against the Dodgers, but he said after the game that his arm bothered him when he threw his changeup.
“Honestly, I didn’t think this was in the cards,” Kochanowicz said before Tuesday’s game against Houston. “I really thought it was just a little angry.
“I mean, my velo was fine, the fastballs, everything was fine. It really was just the changeup.
“I thought it was just kind of general soreness. … I thought I was going to hear back today that it was all right, but man, it is what it is.”
Manager Kurt Suzuki said the Angels are “still evaluating” their options for Kochanowicz’s replacement in the rotation. Among the candidates are left-hander Sam Aldegheri and triple-A right-handers Caden Dana and George Klassen.
Moncada, 31, who signed a one-year, $4-million deal with the Angels in February, was placed on the injured list because of right-knee inflammation on May 22 and transferred to the 60-day injured list on Monday.
He hit .189 with a .605 OPS, three homers and 10 RBIs in 41 games.
Angels first baseman Trey Mancini, a cancer survivor and former Baltimore slugger, had three hits in his first major league game since 2023 on Monday night in a 5-4 loss to the Houston Astros in 10 innings.
Mancini delivered a run-scoring single in the second inning in his first at-bat. He singled again leading off the fourth before adding a third single in the eighth.
The Angels selected the contract of Mancini and put him in the lineup at first base against the Astros after putting infielders Vaughn Grissom (left oblique strain) and Adam Frazier (right elbow inflammation) on the 10-day injured list.
Mancini, 34, agreed to a minor league contract with the Angels in February, a deal that included an invitation to major league spring training. Mancini hit .273 with six homers, 29 RBIs and three steals for triple-A Salt Lake this year.
Mancini has batted .263 with 129 homers and 400 RBIs over parts of seven seasons in the majors. He played parts of six seasons with the Orioles and hit a career-high 29 homers in 2019.
Mancini then missed the 2020 season after surgery to remove a malignant tumor from his colon. He made a successful return to the Orioles in 2021, and he won a World Series ring in 2022 after Baltimore traded him to Houston.
He spent part of the 2023 season with the Chicago Cubs. He has since played in the minor league systems of the Reds, Marlins and Diamondbacks.
Mancini opted out of a minor league deal with Arizona last July after batting .308 with 16 homers for triple-A Reno.
Grissom’s move to the IL was retroactive to Friday. Frazier’s move was retroactive to Saturday.
The Angels also recalled infielder Denzer Guzman from Salt Lake and transferred infielder Yoán Moncada to the 60-day injured list.
HOUSTON — It was the perfect time for Shohei Ohtani to step up to the plate. The Dodgers’ offense was rolling again, ready to make a statement with a third-inning rally against the Astros. They loaded the bases and turned over the batting order.
Then Ohtani chased a sinker off the plate and chopped a slow bouncer to Astros third baseman Isaac Paredes, giving him an easy play at second. A far departure from the eye-popping exit velocities that Ohtani’s swing usually produces, the run-scoring grounder was soft enough to avoid a double play.
In the Dodgers’ 8-3 win Monday against the Astros, Ohtani’s hitless streak stretched to five games, his longest such skid since 2022, when he also went five games without a hit (May 24-28).
“I do feel like over the course of my career it’s just a reality that I’m not exactly hitting at the best of my ability at this time of year,” Ohtani said last week through interpreter Will Ireton. “At the same time, as a player, I do want to be better and get to that position where I’m feeling really good. It’s a balancing act of the two.”
The rest of the Dodgers’ offense finally broke out on Monday, against a snakebitten Astros pitching staff.
Alex Freeland ended the Dodgers’ homerless streak at six games with an opposite-field shot into the Crawford boxes in the second inning. Leading off the third, Kyle Tucker hit a solo home run of his own, giving the Dodgers their first multi-homer game in two weeks.
Seven Dodgers combined for 13 hits, with Freeland and Will Smith leading the pack with three apiece. Tucker and Freddie Freeman each contributed a pair of RBIs.
The offensive surge just didn’t extend to Ohtani.
Kyle Tucker hits a solo home run for the Dodgers in the third inning against the Astros on Monday.
(Tim Warner / Getty Images)
In contrast to his offensive struggles, Ohtani has been dominant on the mound. He earned a pitcher of the month award for the first time in his career Monday after recording a 0.60 ERA in five starts in March and April.
Unhappy with just one-sided success, however, Ohtani shook up his routine with early on-field batting practice Monday.
“Most of the times when he does this, it works,” manager Dave Roberts said.
Ohtani took on-field batting practice before Game 3 of the 2025 NL Championship Series and then hit three home runs in Game 4. He usually prefers the batting cages for his pregame BP. But Monday marked the second time this season that he moved his session to the field.
“If you hit a ball down the line the other way in the cage, it kind of looks like it’s a foul ball,” hitting coach Aaron Bates said. “Whereas on the field you can see it’s fair, you can kind of see the spin of the ball a little better. It just kind of changes up the environment a little bit. The depth perception, too, helps a lot.”
Hitting the ball the other way was one of Ohtani’s goals.
Dodgers starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivers during the first inning Monday against the Astros.
(Ashley Landis / Associated Press)
Amid his slow offensive start, Ohtani’s swing has become pull-happy. He’s been hitting the ball to the right side at 53.4% entering Monday, compared to 43.2% last season, according to Statcast.
“It’s more about timing and feel for him, backing up the baseball,” Bates said. “When he gathers correctly and hits through the baseball, obviously we’ve seen what he’s capable of doing. But just kind of managing his at-bats right now, trying to get to the big part of the park.”
For the first time since 2023, Ohtani is also balancing a full starting pitcher’s workload with his offensive responsibilities.
“It is easier to maintain something good when things are going well,” Ohtani said. “But when things are not going well, it’s not easy, in the sense that I have to make sure that I’m healthy and not overdoing it in terms of repetition. So while I’m working on certain things, it’s also a balancing act of making sure I’m not overdoing it physically and making sure that I’m healthy.”
No matter what, it’s going to take a greater physical toll. Case in point: after hitting on the field Monday, Ohtani also threw a bullpen session.
The Dodgers have tried to help him manage his workload by giving him days off from hitting on some of his pitching days. Those pitching-only days weren’t a regular occurrence when Ohtani was with the Angels, but now Ohtani is also preparing for what’s expected to be a deep postseason run.
The Dodgers have given Ohtani two pitching-only days already this season, but Roberts said he plans to have Ohtani hit when he pitches against the Astros on Tuesday.
“It’s doable,” Roberts said when asked about Ohtani trying to fix his swing while pitching. “The bottom line is, there’s no other alternative. He’s going to DH a lot. He’s going to pitch a lot. Now, how best we preserve him and keep him strong and healthy is the question.”
Ohtani’s search for his usual offensive production will continue at least another day. He drew two walks Monday. And the best contact he made was on a fly out to center field (91.2 mph exit velocity) in the seventh inning.
Everything we know about Alex Cora during his rudely interrupted tenure as manager of the Boston Red Sox lines up almost perfectly with everything we knew about him as a Dodgers player more than 20 years ago.
He communicates exceptionally well. He quietly makes a positive contribution. He handles failure admirably. Win or lose, he exhibits class.
Nothing has tested those traits more than what Cora, 50, endured over the last week. The man known throughout baseball as AC was fired by Boston on April 26, turned down an offer to manage the Philadelphia Phillies a day later, then while home in Puerto Rico saw that an ultimatum he made last season to general manager Craig Breslow was reported by the Boston Globe.
Cora somehow found time to pen an expression of gratitude to the Red Sox organization and fans.
“Thank you for treating me with respect and most importantly accept me as AC,” he wrote. “I’m grateful for this experience, it made me better….
“Thank you for the hard work, sleepless nights, professionalism and effort to help me lead this great organization.”
Communication and class until the end, no doubt. Yet the single blemish on his resume is eternally painful to Dodgers fans.
Alex Cora was fired as manager of the Boston Red Sox on April 26.
(Nick Wass/AP)
Cora was the Houston Astros bench coach in 2017 when the Dodgers were victimized by a sign-stealing scheme during the World Series, which the Astros won in seven games.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred released a report in January 2020 that detailed how in 2017 and 2018 the Astros illegally used electronic equipment to steal signs. Cora was central to the scheme, the report saying he “arranged for a video-room technician to install a monitor displaying the center-field camera feed immediately outside of the Astros dugout.”
By 2020, though, Cora was beloved in Boston for piloting the Red Sox to the 2018 World Series championship over the Dodgers in his first season as manager. Nevertheless he was fired a day after the report was released and suspended by MLB for the 2020 season.
Dodgers second baseman Alex Cora during a game against the Milwaukee Brewers in May 2004.
(Morry Gash / Associated Press)
The mea culpa was well-received by the trio and underscored Cora’s ability to smooth over even the most awkward situations.
“I’m going to be 100% honest with you — I just felt like I wanted to cry at that moment when he said that,” Jansen told a Boston radio station. “I felt like a weight came off.”
It’s now known that Cora backed his coaches when Breslow wanted to fire several of them last season. The Globe reported that Cora told the general manager that the Red Sox would have to fire him as well.
Breslow backed down then but not last week, firing five coaches along with Cora.
Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombroski responded swiftly, making Cora an offer even before firing manager Rob Thomson on Tuesday. The well-traveled Dombroski has led four franchises to a World Series — an MLB record — including one alongside Cora with the Red Sox in 2018, and the offer to jump to the Phillies was tempting.
But Cora put family first, telling Dombroski he wanted to take time with his fiancée, Angelica, and twin 8-year-old sons, Xander and Isander. After all, he is still under contract with the Red Sox through 2027, and is owed $14 million.
That’s about what he earned in 14 seasons as an infielder properly labeled as a good-field, no-hit, great clubhouse presence. Cora was the Dodgers’ primary shortstop in 2000 and 2001, then moved to second base through 2004.
The Dodgers’ center fielder from 2002 to the 2004 midseason was Dave Roberts, the current Dodgers manager who remains a close friend of Cora. The 2018 World Series was the first to feature two minority managers — a point of pride for the Puerto Rican-born Cora and Roberts, who is half-black and half-Japanese.
Cora won a World Series as a Red Sox reserve in 2007 and finished with a career batting average of .243 with a paltry 35 home runs in 3,825 plate appearances — the most memorable of which came May 12, 2004.
Cora capped an 18-pitch at-bat that included 14 foul balls with a home run against Chicago Cubs right-hander Matt Clement.
“What a moment! 9:23 on the scoreboard, if you want to write it down for history. What an at-bat!” Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully exclaimed. “That’s one of the finest at-bats I’ve ever seen, and to top it off with a home run, that is really shocking.”
Cora took a curtain call from the Dodger Stadium crowd and Scully said, “Yeah take a bow, Alex! You deserve it and then some!”
What Cora almost undoubtedly has earned now is another shot at managing. His 620-541 record is well above average. His reputation — sign-stealing scandal notwithstanding — is glowing.
The Phillies hired former Dodgers manager Don Mattingly on an interim basis and likely will circle back to Cora after the season. If not, other teams are expected to come calling.
