With a third of MLB teams trying to be winners in the return on their investment rather than on the field, it’s heartening to see the Angels going all in to win this year with Shohei Ohtani.
While taking Ohtani off the market and acquiring pitching help at the trade deadline will boost the club’s chances of breaking their long postseason drought, let’s be straight about one thing. The purpose of those decisions is not to reach the postseason, but to convince Ohtani that the Angels are committed to winning so that he might sign a contract extension and remain in Anaheim.
Japan has a new league leader Thursday, when Masahiro Tanaka‘s progress toward There’s also an injury update on Norichika Aoki.
Thursday’s games
Fighters 9, Eagles 5: At Miyagi Stadium, Nippon Ham made a meal of Masahiro Tanaka (5-6), breaking a 2-2 fifth-inning tie in a six-run inning, that the Eagles starter did not survive. Maikel Franco doubled and scored the tying run for Rakuten in the fourth, and with the Eagles trailing 8-2 in the fifth, he belted a two-run homer, his seventh.