Shohei Ohtani was tagged with his first loss of the season Tuesday when he allowed three runs over seven innings in the Los Angeles Angels' 3-1 loss to the Houston Astros.
Ohtani (4-1) gave up six hits and two walks as he came out on the wrong side of a pitching duel with Framber Valdez (3-4), who yielded a run on three hits and walked none while striking out 12 to Ohtani's seven at Angel Stadium.
Zach Neto's solo home run put the Angels on the board in the third and Ohtani allowed just three runners to reach through the first four innings. But the two-way star issued a one-out fifth-inning walk before his 3-2 sweeper was belted out to left by Martin Maldonado.
"He (Valdez) is a wonderful pitcher, so I understood it was going to be a low-scoring game," said Ohtani, who batted third but was hitless in three at-bats. "Given that, I believe letting them come back against me was the reason we lost."
Ohtani surrendered a single to his next three batters as the Astros scored another run.
Masataka Yoshida's 16-game hitting streak came to an end as the Boston Red Sox outfielder went 0-for-5 in a 9-3 defeat to the Atlanta Braves.
Yoshida, named the American League Player of the Week on Monday, tipped his cap to Braves starter Charlie Morton (4-3). In the third inning, Yoshida struck out for the first time in seven games, swinging and missing three straight curveballs.
"I couldn't adjust to the curve. He might have thought I just couldn't hit his," Yoshida said of the right-hander, who won his 120 MLB game.
