Angels’ stunning 9th-inning rally nets victory after Shohei Ohtani’s disappointing start

NEW YORK — Shohei Ohtani did not deliver on the big stage, but his teammates certainly did.

After Ohtani endured the worst start of his career, allowing seven runs and getting knocked out in the first inning, the Angels scored seven runs in the ninth inning in a stunning 11-8 victory over the New York Yankees on Wednesday night.

Jared Walsh’s second home run of the game was a ninth-inning grand slam against Aroldis Chapman, who had walked the bases loaded.

Phil Gosselin, who hit a two-run homer in the first, then drew a walk and went to third on a David Fletcher hit, extending his hitting streak to 15 games.

Luis Rengifo then delivered a two-run single to put the Angels ahead. Taylor Ward followed with a double down the left field line, driving in Rengifo.

Closer Raisel Iglesias worked the bottom of the ninth to secure the victory, which ended at 1:06 a.m. local time because the game had two rain delays totaling 2 hours, 13 minutes.

By the time the Angels had pulled out the improbable victory, it seemed like days earlier that Ohtani had endured such a disappointing outing.

It was his first career start at Yankee Stadium, and it came as the buzz surrounding his two-way exploits was reaching new highs, including three homers in the first two games of the series.

But Ohtani was not himself.

He recorded just two outs, walking four and hitting a batter. He was pulled after 41 pitches, certainly with all of the baseball world groaning as he trudged off the mound.

Only four runs had scored when Ohtani left, but he left the bases loaded and all three runs scored against Aaron Slegers.

Ohtani’s ERA rose from 2.58 to 3.60 with the disappointing outing.

Ohtani’s early exit could have crushed the Angels’ bullpen for days to come, but Dylan Bundy came out of the bullpen to work two scoreless innings.

Bundy was available because he threw just 43 pitches on Monday before suffering from heat exhaustion, resulting in him throwing up on the field.

This time his relief outing started a string of effective work from Tony Watson, Steve Cishek and Mike Mayers. The only run they allowed was a Brett Gardner homer against Mayers in the eighth.

That left the deficit at four runs before the Angels sprung to life in the ninth.

More to come on this story.