Kikuchi reaches 1,000 career strikeouts in rocky outing

ANAHEIM -- Much like his 2025 season, it started off so promising, only for it to fizzle out.

Lefty Yusei Kikuchi reached a personal milestone, becoming the fourth Japanese-born pitcher to reach 1,000 strikeouts with a punch out to open the game, only to allow seven runs over two innings in a 17-4 loss to the Athletics on Saturday night at Angel Stadium. It was a continuation of Kikuchi’s second half struggles since being the club’s lone All-Star, as he had a 3.11 ERA in 20 first half starts but a 6.66 ERA in 10 outings since the break.

“Just a tough day,” interim manager Ray Montgomery said. “It was a tremendous accolade, 1,000 strikeouts. He got two quick outs, both innings, and then it just kind of got away from him a little bit. Maybe a little bit of the fastball command evaded him. And, unfortunately, I think after two innings and where he was with the heat and stuff like that, we had to get him out of there.”

Kikuchi, who signed a three-year deal worth $63 million in the offseason, saw his ERA rise to 4.18 ERA in 30 starts, the first time it’s been above 4.00 since May 1, when he had a 4.21 ERA through his first seven starts. He said he’s still trying to figure out what’s gone wrong.

“The last few games haven’t gone my way,” Kikuchi said through interpreter Yusuke Oshima. “It's been tough, so I've been trying different things. But it seems like nothing's working. So I'm just gonna continue to do what I do and get through it.”

It started off innocently enough with Kikuchi opening the game with a strikeout of Shea Langeliers to reach the 1,000-strikeout mark for his career. He joined Yu Darvish (2,055), Hideo Nomo (1,918) and Kenta Maeda (1,055) as the only Japanese players to reach that mark in the Majors. Kikuchi was honored on the scoreboard for his achievement but the good feelings didn’t last too much longer after that.

He got Brent Rooker to line out but then his control problems resurfaced, walking Nick Kurtz on four pitches and Colby Thomas on six pitches to find himself in a two-out jam. He gave up a single to Jacob Wilson to load the bases for Tyler Soderstrom and it looked like he was going to get out of the inning unscathed by getting Soderstrom to hit a hard liner to left.

But left fielder Taylor Ward, who is playing with more than 20 stitches above his eye after a scary collision with the out-of-town scoreboard in Houston on Sunday, misplayed it and it went over his head for what was ruled a three-run double.

“It's a ball he normally catches, and we've seen [that] for a number of years,” Montgomery said. “It's just unfortunate. When you make a play like that, you want to dig a hole and crawl in it, because it's usually going to cost you more than one run. He obviously feels terrible about it.”

Kikuchi recovered to get Darell Hernaiz to line out to short to end the inning, but he threw 31 pitches in the opening frame and labored again in the second. It also started out innocuously, as he quickly recorded two outs before it all unraveled after a two-out double from Langeliers on a 1-2 slider on the inner half.

Rooker followed with a double of his own to bring home a run before Kikuchi walked Kurtz for a second time on four pitches. It set up a three-run homer from Colby Thomas on a first-pitch fastball from Kikuchi at the bottom part of the zone.

Kikuchi finished the inning, but it matched his shortest start of the year, as he also lasted just two innings while giving up four runs against the Twins on April 26, which was also the last time Logan O’Hoppe caught him before Saturday.

“I’m still searching,” Kikuchi said. “Hopefully I can find it over these next three, four starts and end the season on a good note going into next year.”

It marked the second straight night that an Angels starter couldn’t go more than three innings, as right-hander José Soriano was tagged for eight runs over 2 1/3 frames on Friday. They were fortunate to have long reliever José Ureña throw five scoreless innings in the series opener, but had to use four relievers on Saturday before turning to infielder Scott Kingery for mop-up duty in the eighth and ninth innings.

“I’m glad it’s over,” Montgomery said. “We’ll put it in the rearview mirror and move on to tomorrow.”