SHOHEI OHTANI came out of Wednesday’s game with a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand. Angels won anyway, 4-3 (Angels photo).

By Pete Zarustica

When you’ve got an injury to a young superstar like Shohei Ohtani, you almost care more about his health than the outcome of the game. Luckily for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, both things turned out all right and the Halos defeated the Kansas City Royals 4-3.

The win was the Angels’ fourth straight as they swept the series with the Royals and improved their record to 35-28. That puts them solidly in third in the American League West, four games back of the division-leading Seattle Mariners and three games behind second place Houston.

Ohtani came out of the game after four innings with “only” a blister on the middle finger of his right (pitching) hand. After four, he had yielded one run on four hits. He struck out four and walked three.

“We’ll see,” Angel manager Mike Scioscia said, referring to Ohtani’s pitching schedule. “We got a lot of options. We got an off day tomorrow. Another off-day swinging back next week, so there are some things we can look at.”

This time, the Angel bullpen was able to hold the line, more or less. The win went to Cam Bedrosian (3-1), the second of four relievers who worked the final five innings. Blake Parker got the save.

The Angels won the game with the long ball as Ian Kinsler and Justin Upton went deep for the Orange County team. Kinsler ended up with two hits, one run scored and two RBIs.

Thursday will be travel day for the Halos, who will start a six-game road trip on Friday. They’ll face the Minnesota Twins (26-32) on Friday for the beginning of a three-game set.