Taiwanese baseball star Yu Chang on Saturday snapped a 0-for-28 drought with a two-run homer and delivered a go-ahead, two-run single after the Los Angeles Angels’ Matt Thaiss was called for his second catcher’s interference (CI) in the eighth inning, lifting the Boston Red Sox to a 9-7 comeback win.
“It’s just a matter of gaining confidence,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said of Chang. “He made a comment that when he was [at the World Baseball Classic, WBC] how confident he was playing. Then he comes here and it gets harder. We understand that.”
Rafael Devers added his seventh homer, a two-run shot, and Rob Refsnyder drove in two runs for Boston.
Photo: AFP
Gio Urshela hit a grand slam and drove in five runs, and Mike Trout added three hits with his 300th career double for the Angels, who were sloppy in a 5-3 loss in the series opener.
The 31-year-old Trout became the fourth in MLB history to reach 300 doubles, 300 homers and 200 stolen bases by his age, joining Willie Mays, Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez.
Shohei Ohtani had two singles, with his second pushing the Angels ahead 7-6. He extended his on-base streak to 36 games, the majors’ longest current active stretch.
Thaiss had his CIs in three batters to help Boston load the bases in the eighth against Ryan Tepera (1-1) before Chang drove his single to the left. Tepera walked Refsnyder with the bases loaded.
“It is rare,” said Red Sox catcher Reese McGuire, who was the second CI. “It doesn’t happen that much, but it does happen when the hitter is seeing the ball deep, trying to go the other way. That’s typically when it happens.”
Chang did not make a hit in his first 16 at-bats over the previous nine games this season, during which he recorded seven strikeouts, and reached the base only three times on a walk.
That slump finally ended with his homer in a three-run fourth inning that pushed Boston ahead 6-4.
“That’s the guy we saw in WBC. He was MVP [Most Valuable Player] of Pool A,” a play-by-play broadcaster said of the 27-year-old Taitung native.
Chang said it was a relief to get that first hit, which ended an MLB slump dating back to Sept. 22 last year.
“I’m so happy that the team gave me that consistent opportunity to play every day, even though I didn’t hit well in the beginning,” Chang said through a translator. “What the coaches expressed to me is [that] they don’t want me to think about the past. They want me to do the same routine and have the same consistency and grab any opportunity you have coming.”
Chang on Saturday also made MLB history as the only player to record four RBIs after entering a game 0-for-15 or worse with 0 RBIs in a season since 1920, when RBIs became an official stat, wrote OptaSTATS, a Twitter account of sports data firm Stats Perform.
Visa issues delayed Chang’s participation in the Red Sox’s spring training, and he only played in two warm-up games before the start of the season.
Cora said he remained confident in Chang.
“We’ve been talking about the MVP of Pool A, you know, just be Yu,” he said.
Additional reporting by staff writer, with CNA
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to