A's beat Angels behind Sean Murphy's big day

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Shohei Ohtani couldn't connect at the plate, going 0 for 3 while twice leaving runners in scoring position. Although Ohtani was solid on the mound, he couldn't retire Sean Murphy in two key situations.

Ohtani sometimes has to do it all by himself for the struggling Angels to win, and the Oakland Athletics did just enough against the two-way superstar to claim an encouraging victory.

Murphy homered and drove in three runs off Ohtani, leading the A's to a 3-1 victory over Los Angeles on Wednesday night.

James Kaprielian (3-5) pitched six-hit ball into the sixth as the A’s snapped their three-game losing streak by beating Ohtani (9-7), who has no victories over Oakland in five mound appearances since 2018.

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Oakland Athletics' Sean Murphy (12) celebrates his two-run home run with Elvis Andrus (17) during the sixth inning of the team's baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022, in Anaheim, Calif.  (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Ohtani yielded seven hits and two earned runs while pitching into the sixth inning of his third straight defeat, again falling short of his career-best 10th mound victory after Murphy hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the sixth. The AL MVP struck out seven A’s, which ended his streak of six consecutive starts with double-digit strikeouts just short of Nolan Ryan’s franchise-record seven.

"He had his fair share of punchouts, but that’s what he’s going to do," A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. "I think we had good at-bats and got his pitch count up and got him out early."

Ohtani was fairly happy with his slider-heavy mound performance, but he