LOS ANGELES Angels’ Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting a home run during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals, Sunday, June, 18, 2023, in Kansas City, Mo. He’s now hit 28 homers, best in MLB (AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann)

By Pete Zarustica/Orange County Tribune

Here’s a little poem for followers of the Los Angeles Angels.

“Whatever happens/ we have got/Shohei Ohtani/and they have not.”

In addition to the mountain-high contributions of the future Hall of Famer, the Halos also have a made-to-order schedule as June turns into July.

In Tuesday night’s 4-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox at the Big A, Ohtani hit two home runs, batted 3-for-3 and struck out 10 batters to add to his glittering stats. He’s now hit 28 home runs – best in Major League Baseball – and improved his pitching record to 7-3.

With the win, the Angels are 44-37 and moved into second place in the American League West, five games back of the first place Texas Rangers and one game ahead of the third place Houston Astros.

The Angels have winning records both on the road and in Anaheim but most of what lies ahead is in Southern California. There are two more games (Wednesday and Friday) against a relatively beatable White Sox team in Anaheim then a marquee four-game home series hosting the Arizona Diamondbacks, leaders of the National League West.

Following that are three games in San Diego, then two at Dodger Stadium. Next, there’s a five-game All-Star break which should leave the team tanned, rested and ready for the second half of a so-far promising season.

Dodgers smooth out Rockies, 5-0

Clayton Kershaw became the first pitcher in the National League to reach 10 wins as the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Colorado Rockies 5-0 Tuesday night in Denver.

Kershaw (10-4) pitched six innings of one-hit baseball and lowered his ERA in June to 1.09. With the win, the Blue Crew is 44-34. That’s still in third place in the National League West, but just three games out of first behind the Arizona Diamondbacks and a half-game behind the surging second place San Francisco Giants.

J.D. Martinez hit two home runs to reach the 300-mark in his career. He accounted for three of the team’s five runs.