Taylor Ward homered and drove in four runs for the Los Angeles Angels, who scored a whopping 11 runs in the third inning and routed the Oakland Athletics 13-1 on Saturday to spoil the debut of pitcher Shintaro Fujinami.
Shohei Ohtani had two hits and a pair of RBIs for Los Angeles. Gio Urshela, Jake Lamb and rookie catcher Logan O’Hoope each drove in two runs to keep the Angels from starting 0-2 for the second straight season.
Ramon Laureano homered off Angels starter Patrick Sandoval (1-0).
Fujinami, who signed as a one-year free agent with Oakland after spending 10 seasons with the Hanshin Tigers, was part of the same class as Ohtani in the 2012 Japanese draft. He sailed through the first two innings before collapsing.
After striking out Ward on a slider at 93 mph early in the game, Fujinami (0-1) fanned out slugger Mike Trout with the same pitch, but at 95 mph. Then he forced Ohtani to hit a weak grounder to first baseman.
But the Japanese rookie ended up working just 2 1/3 innings, allowing eight earned runs. He walked three and struck out four.
For the Angels, Venezuelan Luis Rengifo 3-0 with three runs scored. Colombian Urshela 4-3 with two runs scored and two produced.
For the Athletics, the Dominicans Esteury Ruiz 2-0, Laureano 3-1 with a run scored and an RBI. The Cuban Aledmys Díaz of 4-1. Venezuelans Jesús Aguilar 3-1, Carlos Pérez 1-1.