Shohei Ohtani fans career-high 13 as Angels blank Royals

Shohei Ohtani threw eight scoreless innings, allowed just two hits and struck out a career-high 13 to lead the Los Angeles Angels to a 5-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night in Anaheim, Calif.

The performance came one night after Ohtani homered twice and drove in eight runs.

Ohtani (6-4) gave up back-to-back singles to Whit Merrifield and Andrew Benintendi to begin the game but did not allow another hit the rest of the way, retiring the next 16 batters in a row.

The only Royals batter to reach base after the first inning was Merrifield, who walked in the sixth but was erased on a double-play grounder. In all, Ohtani made a season-high 108 pitches.

Ryan Tepera pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning to complete the Angels' two-hitter.

At the plate, Ohtani went 1-for-3 with two walks.

Angels center fielder Mike Trout and first baseman Jared Walsh were given the night off to rest, but the club got a boost from second baseman Luis Rengifo, who had two hits batting in the third spot.

David MacKinnon got the start at first base for Los Angeles and drove in two runs with a sacrifice fly and RBI single, his first career major league hit.

Royals starter Daniel Lynch (3-7) matched Ohtani zero for zero through four innings. But in the fifth, the Angels pushed across a run.

With one out, Lynch walked both Taylor Ward and Ohtani. After an infield single by Rengifo loaded the bases, MacKinnon hit a sacrifice fly to put the Angels up 1-0.

That was the end of the night for Lynch, who gave up one run on three hits and five walks in 4 2/3 innings, striking out five and throwing 104 pitches.

The Angels gave Ohtani some breathing room in the seventh inning by scoring a couple of insurance runs. Andrew Velazquez led off with a walk, and he scored on Rengifo's two-out double. MacKinnon followed with an RBI single for a 3-0 lead.

In the eighth, Velazquez had a run-scoring single and Ward hit an RBI double.