Devers homers, surging Red Sox hold off Ohtani's Angels 5-4

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Rafael Devers hit a two-run homer and drove in three runs, and the Boston Red Sox retired Shohei Ohtani on a grounder to right field with two Angels on base for the final out in their 5-4 victory over Los Angeles on Monday night.

Christian Arroyo also homered for the AL-leading Red Sox, who held Ohtani to a single on his 27th birthday and improved the majors' best road record to 27-15. Devers’ 21st homer of his first All-Star season punctuated his three-hit performance in Boston's 10th win in 11 games while backed by a loud contingent of West Coast fans.

Jose Rojas homered and added an RBI single in the ninth for the Angels, who fell back to .500 with just their second loss in eight games.

Adam Ottavino secured his seventh save even though he walked leadoff hitter José Iglesias in the ninth and then gave up Rojas' two-out RBI single. David Fletcher singled off Devers' glove at third to bring up Ohtani, but the major league homers leader smacked a hard grounder to Arroyo — Boston's second baseman — in shallow right field, denying the Angels their third walk-off win in four days.

Ohtani’s final grounder left his bat at 101.3 mph and had an expected batting average of .910, according to Statcast. He went 1 for 5 and didn't add to his 31 homers after hitting 14 in his past 17 games. He was also denied an RBI in the fifth inning when Danny Santana threw out Rojas at the plate after Ohtani's single.

Martín Pérez (7-4) made it into the sixth inning for the Red Sox, giving up just one earned run on eight hits. Boston stayed in front thanks to superb defense all night at Angel Stadium, most notably when Kiké Hernández robbed Luis Rengifo of a two-run homer to center to end the second inning.

After Rojas was thrown out at the plate by Santana, who...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Devers-homers-surging-Red-Sox-hold-off-Ohtani-s-16295017.php