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ANAHEIM, Calif. — When he prepared for his first at-bat in Tuesday’s top of the first, fans saluted him with a standing ovation. When he roped a line drive down the right-field line two innings later, “MVP” chants greeted him as he reached third base. And when he was intentionally walked in the 10th inning — paving the way for Mookie Betts‘ game-breaking three-run homer immediately thereafter, setting up the Los Angeles Dodgers6-2 victory — the largest Angel Stadium crowd of the season jeered loudly.

Shohei Ohtani was welcomed back warmly in his first official game back in Anaheim, save for some sparse boos.

It helped that at least half the 44,731 people in attendance were Dodgers fans who made the 30-mile trek south.

“As a player, I feel very supported and appreciative of all the fans that are in front of me, in front of the team,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “It makes a difference that they’re out here.”

As an Angel, the organization he chose after being recruited out of Japan by practically every major league team, Ohtani won the American League Rookie of the Year Award in 2018 and later tapped into his promise as a two-way phenomenon. He won two MVPs unanimously and would’ve won a third if not for Aaron Judge‘s 62-homer season from 2021 to 2023, during which Ohtani easily paced the majors with 26.1 FanGraphs wins above replacement.

The Angels never sniffed the playoffs during Ohtani’s six-year tenure. But they empowered him to pitch and hit simultaneously the way no one ever had since Babe Ruth, and there was a belief by prominent people within the organization that his loyalty to the Angels would give them a legitimate chance to re-sign him in free agency.

But when Ohtani and the Dodgers put together the framework of a 10-year, $700 million deal that included $680 million in deferred payments, the Angels — under longtime owner Arte Moreno, who doesn’t typically hand out deferrals — declined to match. Whether he would have returned if they did is a question that might forever be left for speculation, and one Ohtani declined to answer when asked by reporters in Phoenix on Monday.

For what it’s worth, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts never felt as if the Angels were a threat this past offseason.

“I don’t think they were in the conversation,” Roberts said. “Obviously, there was a lot of hearsay. They could’ve been in the conversation, but I never got wind of that. It might’ve been on the down low. But Shohei said that they didn’t offer him, so I don’t think they were part of the conversation.”

Roberts says he believes Tuesday’s game — technically Ohtani’s second back at Angel Stadium, if you count the exhibition Freeway Series from March — offered “closure,” but mostly for the fans. He senses Ohtani has mostly moved on. His transition to the Dodgers, Roberts said, has been “pretty seamless” — despite the pressure of a mega-contract, the betting scandal that engulfed his former interpreter and the challenge of juggling his responsibilities as a designated hitter with his rehabilitation as a pitcher.

“It’s just how he’s wired,” Roberts said of Ohtani. “I think that some people are pretty emotional about things and some people are just very kind of unemotional. He’s just simplistic in that sense. It’s part of his past, and a significant part of his life, but I don’t think it’s something he continues to think through. I think he’s more of a forward-thinking person.”

Ohtani did not add to his 44 home runs or 46 stolen bases Tuesday, but he’s still well on pace to become the first 50-50 player in baseball history. If he can hold off New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor, he’ll be the first full-time DH to win an MVP and will join Barry Bonds as the only players to win back-to-back MVPs with different teams.

His return here Tuesday marked the one-year anniversary of his last game in an Angels uniform and also qualified as the first meaningful September game he had ever played in the stadium. The Angels, who played a video tribute for Ohtani in March, merely honored his return with a videoboard message that listed his accomplishments as he walked toward the batter’s box for his first at-bat. For a brief moment, the description under his name when he came to bat again in the fifth inning read: “Used to work here.”

He sure did.

“The biggest part of all of this is really being able to play at this stadium in front of the Anaheim fans,” Ohtani said. “That was the part that was special for me.”

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Rays’ 8-run comeback largest in MLB this season

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Rays' 8-run comeback largest in MLB this season

TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Rays overcame an eight-run deficit to beat the Baltimore Orioles 12-8 on Wednesday night in the largest comeback in the majors this season.

Tampa Bay matched the biggest comeback in franchise history. The Rays also rallied from eight down in a 10-8 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Aug. 18, 2012, and in a 10-9 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on July 25, 2009.

It tied the Orioles’ largest blown lead over the past 50 seasons. Baltimore last gave away an eight-run lead on April 28, 2017, against the New York Yankees. The Orioles led that game 9-1 entering the bottom of the sixth inning before losing 14-11 in 10 innings.

Baltimore had an eight-run second inning on Wednesday. Colton Cowser smacked a three-run home run, Cedric Mullins added a solo shot, Gunnar Henderson had an RBI single and Ramón Laureano hit a three-run homer.

Tampa Bay’s Christopher Morel hit an RBI double in the third, and Jake Mangum‘s two-run single cut it to 8-3. Curtis Mead hit a two-out triple in the fourth and scored on a Junior Caminero single. Brandon Lowe‘s two-run homer in the fifth made it 8-8. And Jonathan Aranda had a two-run single in the Rays’ four-run seventh.

Lowe has at least a hit and a run in seven consecutive games, the longest active streak of its kind in the majors. He is batting .464 (13-of-28) with two home runs, five RBIs and eight runs during that span.

Caminero had four hits and two RBIs for the Rays.

Entering Wednesday, teams were 0-134 when trailing by eight or more runs at any point this season.

“It’s a tough game,” Orioles manager Tony Mansolino said. “It really hurts. But tomorrow, we’ll have to bounce back and try to figure out how to win a game.”

Three teams came back from eight runs behind last season in the majors. Pittsburgh was the most recent team to rally from more than that, erasing a nine-run deficit in a 13-12 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Nov. 23, 2023.

ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Yanks finally score, otherwise sputter in latest loss

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Yanks finally score, otherwise sputter in latest loss

NEW YORK — The good news for the Yankees on Wednesday was they scored a run after 30 consecutive scoreless innings. The bad news was they again didn’t score enough to win.

The Yankees fell to the Los Angeles Angels 3-2 to extend their season-high losing streak to six games. The Angels will look to complete a four-game sweep Thursday afternoon at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees, whose lead in the AL East has shrunk to 1½ games, will look to emerge from an offensive funk that has produced seven runs in seven games.

“That’s baseball,” Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge said. “We know what we signed up for. You’re going to play 162. You’re going to hit a little rut like this, but you can’t give up. You can’t mope about it. You just got to show up the next day and you got to be ready to play.”

Jazz Chisholm Jr. ended the Yankees’ scoreless innings streak in the second inning with a moonshot solo home run down the right-field line, giving New York its first run since the ninth inning Saturday against the Boston Red Sox. Two innings later, Cody Bellinger launched another solo shot to give the Yankees their first lead since last Thursday when they defeated the Kansas City Royals 1-0.

But the Yankees mustered only one other hit — a ground ball from Bellinger in the sixth inning that was ruled a single after it bounced off Trent Grisham as he ran to second base for the inning’s second out. Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he believed his team’s at-bats Wednesday were better than they were Tuesday — when he said he noticed his players pressing — and pointed to four walks as progress.

But the Yankees went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position and are 5-for-48 (.104) with 12 strikeouts, four walks and three RBIs in such situations over their past seven games.

“We just got to break through now like we’re capable of offensively,” Boone said.

Judge, the two-time AL MVP who is a heavy favorite to win a third this season, has gone 1-for-19 with 11 strikeouts, two intentional walks and a home run over the past five games. He went 0-for-4 on Wednesday with two strikeouts, a 94.7 mph groundout and 107.9 mph flyout.

“Guys are pitching, they’re doing their job,” Judge said. “Sometimes we’re faltering on doing our job. But it’s tough to say. I think it just comes down to us not executing, us not doing our job. Maybe a little passive in certain situations. But all we can do is show up tomorrow ready to go.”

The Angels broke through to retake the lead in the eighth inning Wednesday without a hit when, after three walks, shortstop Anthony Volpe mishandled a ground ball on what should’ve been a routine, inning-ending double play. Volpe, a Gold Glove winner in 2023, was charged with his ninth error of the season, the second most among shortstops across the majors.

“Right off the bat, I got to be aggressive, go get the ball, make the play,” Volpe said. “As far as that, that’s all it is. It’s the first read off the bat.”

The lack of execution trickled to the offensive side in the bottom of the inning. The Yankees appeared ready to mount a rally when Jasson Dominguez walked and Oswald Peraza was hit by a pitch to begin the inning. But they were left stranded as Grisham, who was given the green light to swing away with one strike after failing to drop down a bunt, popped out, before Judge flied out and Bellinger popped out to extinguish the threat.

“When we’re not scoring a lot of runs, we got to execute on the highest level on the little things,” Boone said. “And we haven’t done that this week a handful of times when we had some opportunities.”

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Singer defied Dodgers, belted anthem in Spanish

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Singer defied Dodgers, belted anthem in Spanish

Latin singer Nezza said that she is “super proud” of performing the national anthem in Spanish at Dodger Stadium on Saturday night and that she has “no regrets.”

Her surprising 90-second rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ game against the Giants — and a behind-the-scenes video she shared on social media of team representatives discouraging it beforehand — quickly went viral. It has become a flashpoint for Dodgers fans frustrated by the team’s lack of vocal support for immigrant communities impacted by the deportation raids across the U.S., including numerous neighborhoods in and around Los Angeles.

“This is my moment to show everyone that I am with them, that we have a voice and with everything that’s happening it’s not OK,” Nezza, 30, told The Associated Press. “I’m super proud that I did it. No regrets.”

Nezza said she hadn’t yet decided whether to sing in English or Spanish until she walked out onto the field and saw the stands filled with Latino families in Dodger Blue. Before that, as shown in the singer’s TikTok video, a Dodgers employee had told Nezza, “We are going to do the song in English today, so I’m not sure if that wasn’t transferred or if that wasn’t relayed.”

The Spanish-language version Nezza sang, “El Pendón Estrellado,” is the official translation of the national anthem and was commissioned in 1945 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt from Peruvian American composer Clotilde Arias.

Nezza says her manager immediately received a call from an unidentified Dodgers employee saying their clients were not welcome at the stadium again, but the team denied that in a statement to the AP.

“There were no consequences or hard feelings from the Dodgers regarding her performance,” the Dodgers said in the statement. “She was not asked to leave. We would be happy to have her back.”

Despite the Dodgers’ statement, Nezza said she does not think she will return to the stadium but said she hopes her performance will inspire others to use their voice and speak out.

“It’s just shown me, like, how much power there is in the Latin community,” Nezza said. “We’ve got to be the voice right now.”

The Dodgers have not gone on the record regarding the arrests and raids made by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the areas just a short drive from Dodger Stadium, but player Enrique Hernández posted about it on Instagram over the weekend.

“I am saddened and infuriated by what’s happening in our country and our city,” Hernández posted in English and Spanish. “I cannot stand to see our community being violated, profiled, abused and ripped apart. ALL people deserve to be treated with respect, dignity and human rights.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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