Logan O’Hoppe’s monster homer helps Angels edge Giants
The catcher's 467-foot two-run blast ties it in the sixth and Luis Rengifo drives in the go-ahead run with a single in the seventh for a 4-3 road victory
SAN FRANCISCO — Logan O’Hoppe blasted one of the longest homers of the major-league season, but the distance wasn’t what mattered to him.
“It tied the game, and that’s what made me happy,” O’Hoppe said after helping the Angels to a 4-3 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday. “It doesn’t matter if it goes a foot over the wall or a couple feet over the wall.”
O’Hoppe’s game-tying two-run homer went more than “a couple” feet over the left-field fence in the sixth inning. It was calculated at 467 feet, tied for the fifth longest homer in the majors this season. It was 39 feet farther than any of his other 22 career big-league homers.
“It was sick,” said left-hander Patrick Sandoval, who had just thrown his final pitch of the game in the inning before O’Hoppe’s homer took him off the hook for a loss. “It was really, really cool. The past few weeks he’s been coming up big for us.”
O’Hoppe is now 15 for 29 in his last eight games, with seven extra-base hits and a 1.430 OPS. For the season, O’Hoppe has lifted his average to .284 and his OPS to .811. He has hit nine homers.
“He’s been swinging the bat the way we know he’s capable of,” manager Ron Washington said. “And that was huge that he got us to tie the ballgame right there. He’s been into it lately. He’s really been into it. He’s been involved in a lot of things we’ve been doing lately on the offensive side. So that’s good.”
O’Hoppe started the season hot, then hit a cold stretch in May, but he’s been on fire for the past couple weeks.
“There’s a few things I’ve been working on to get my swing back,” O’Hoppe said. “Simplifying overall has been the key.”
After O’Hoppe tied the game, the Angels took the lead an inning later on a two-out single from Luis Rengifo.
Relievers Hunter Strickland, Luis Garcia and Carlos Estévez held the lead over the final three innings. Strickland and Garcia, who each had rough outings when they pitched Wednesday, had no trouble this time. Strickland gave up a leadoff double and retired three in a row, and Garcia and Estévez each were retired all three hitters they faced.
Left-hander Matt Moore had maintained the tie by pitching a scoreless sixth, stranding a runner at third.
“They came in and did exactly what we needed them to do,” Washington said of the bullpen. “It was outstanding.”
Sandoval got a no-decision after weaving his way through five innings on 97 pitches, allowing three runs on eight hits and two walks.
Sandoval certainly would have liked to be better, but it also could have been much worse. The Giants had two on with one out in the first and the bases loaded with one out in the fifth. Both times Sandoval escaped those jams with no further damage.
“Not the greatest performance on my end,” Sandoval said. “I felt like I let the boys down. I taxed the bullpen. Didn’t feel like I did my job today.”
Sandoval said he “didn’t really have feel for anything today,” although it wasn’t all bad. He struck out the side against the middle of the Giants order in the third inning.
“I was impressed with his ability to come back and settle in,” O’Hoppe said. “He started executing his pitches at the bottom of the zone, which really helped.
“I think that early on he was leaving pitches up and just off the plate, but once he got it down, it seemed to line them up pretty good. And he seemed pretty convicted in those secondary pitches, especially as he went on. Obviously, he wants to be better in that first inning, but I think him bouncing back is really impressive.”