Angels thump Fujinami and A’s 13-1

OAKLAND — Taylor Ward homered and drove in four runs, and the Los Angeles Angels scored 11 times in the third inning to beat the Oakland Athletics 13-1 on Saturday, spoiling the major league debut of pitcher Shintaro Fujinami.

Shohei Ohtani had two hits and two RBIs for Los Angeles. Gio Urshela, Jake Lamb and rookie catcher Logan O’Hoppe drove in two runs apiece to help the Angels avoid an 0-2 start for the second consecutive season.

Ramón Laureano homered off Angels starter Patrick Sandoval (1-0).

Fujinami, who signed a one-year, free-agent deal with Oakland after spending the past 10 seasons with the Hanshin Tigers, was part of the same draft class in Japan as Ohtani in 2012. Fujinami breezed through the first two innings, then fell apart.

After getting Ward to strike out swinging at a 93 mph slider to begin the game, Fujinami (0-1) whiffed slugger Mike Trout swinging on a 95 mph slider and got Ohtani to ground out weakly to first base.

Following a 1-2-3 second, the Angels broke through in the third. O’Hoppe’s RBI double got it going. Ward had a run-scoring single before Ohtani banged an 0-1 pitch off the left-field wall for a long RBI single.

Anthony Rendon added a sacrifice fly before Lamb’s two-run single made it 6-0 and ended Fujinami’s afternoon after 55 pitches.

Ward’s homer was a three-run drive off reliever Adam Oller.

Fujinami lasted 2 1/3 innings, allowing eight earned runs with three walks and four strikeouts.

Sandoval extended his dominance of the A’s, allowing one run in five innings. He struck out two and walked two.

Tucker Davidson pitched four scoreless innings for the save.

SHORT HOP

It was the fourth time in the last 50 years the A’s allowed 11 or more runs in one inning.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Athletics: Laureano was removed in the eighth, but it wasn’t clear if it was injury-related.

UP NEXT

Tyler Anderson makes his Angels debut Sunday against Ken Waldichuk in a matchup of left-handers. Anderson had a 1.35 ERA over 13 1/3 innings this spring. Waldichuk went 0-4 in five starts last season for Oakland.