“He’s really swinging it well,” Nevin said. Luis Rengifo hit his third homer for Los Angeles, which stopped a three-game slide. “Maton is one of the toughest against a lefty in all of baseball. “Just a really good at-bat understanding what the pitcher is trying to do,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said. The clutch swing gave Ohtani 41 RBIs on the season. Ohtani was hitless before clubbing a pitch from Phil Maton (0-1) off the wall in right field, driving in Gio Urshela for a 2-1 lead. Though the Astros do have a tough history of purposefully bending the rules, this situation wasn’t one of those times.HOUSTON (AP) - Shohei Ohtani hit a tiebreaking RBI double in the eighth inning, and the Los Angeles Angels edged the Houston Astros 2-1 on Sunday to avoid a four-game series sweep. After all, Maldonado watched his former teammate play with the same bats his entire career without violating any rules. It’s such a subtle rule that most players probably wouldn’t know of unless violated, like in Maldonado’s case. According to Sherman, “MLB considers that brand a riskier bat because it has a greater chance of splintering into multiple pieces.” The league reportedly didn’t see any performance advantages to using the bat, but the rule is in place as a safety standard. It’s tough to keep up with every single rule change in the league, especially the ones regarding equipment.Īstros’ Martin Maldonado made an honest mistake with the illegal batsĪccording to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, “A player may use a maple bat, but it has to meet MLB standards for slope of grain, among other items, the official said.” Pujols got the bat grandfathered in since he made his debut in 2001, far before the rule, and was already accustomed to his bats. Maldonado and Pujols played together on the Los Angeles Angels in 20, and Pujols was able to use those bats throughout his entire career due to joining the league before 2011. The Astros have a bad reputation, but this just seems like an honest mistake. Pujols is a legend, who wouldn’t want to use his bats? Maldonado believes the Pujols always got some of the best quality of bats because of his stature. Martin Maldonado reached out to Albert Pujols before the start of the World Series and asked Pujols to send him some bats - and today, a half-dozen arrived from the future HOFer.

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