Minnesota Twins pitcher Kenta Maeda picked up his first win since August 2021 in his return from the injured list Friday, while Shohei Ohtani hit his major league-leading 25th home run in the Los Angeles Angels' 7-4 loss to the Colorado Rockies.
Maeda (1-4) struck out eight over five scoreless innings in the Twins' 4-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park in Detroit. He allowed three hits and walked two.
The 35-year-old right-hander had lost all four of his starts this season before being placed on the IL for nearly two months with a right triceps strain.
Maeda missed all of last season after he underwent Tommy John surgery in September 2021.
"It's no exaggeration to say that this moment is what I continued to work hard for," Maeda said. "I think this win took a lot of weight off my shoulders."
Maeda allowed the first two batters he faced to reach on a walk and a single but escaped the jam by striking out Kerry Carpenter and getting Javier Baez to ground into a double play.
He was nearly untouchable the rest of the way.
Royce Lewis' solo home run and Max Kepler's two-run homer gave the Twins a 3-0 second-inning lead. A wild pitch by Tigers pitcher Brendan White made it 4-0 in the sixth.
At Coors Field in Denver, Ohtani went 3-for-5 with an RBI, finishing a triple shy of the cycle.
Back-to-back home runs by Ohtani and Mike Trout in the fifth inning put the Angels ahead 4-2.
Ohtani's shot to right-center off left-hander Kyle Freeland was not only his 25th homer of the season but the 200th of his career. He has 152 in MLB and 48 from five seasons in Japan.
Angels relievers blew the lead, however, giving up four runs in the eighth when an error loaded the bases ahead of Elias Diaz's home run. Former Hanshin Tiger Pierce Johnson (1-3) earned the win in relief. The Angels have lost three games in a row.
Among other Japanese players, New York Mets pitcher Kodai Senga (6-5) took the loss after allowing four runs, two earned, in 5-1/3 innings of a 5-1 defeat at the hands of the Philadelphia Phillies.
