PORTO, Portugal -- Raheem Sterling looked to have cracked the Virgil van Dijk code during the closing stages of England's Nations League semifinal defeat against Netherlands in Guimaraes on Thursday.

For a split second, the England forward seemed to have broken clear of the Dutch centre-half having beaten him to the ball and gone past him near the halfway line. During the 2018-19 season, one in which Van Dijk played a pivotal role in Liverpool's Champions League triumph, no opponent was able to take him on and beat him. Not once did a player dribble past Van Dijk -- not even Lionel Messi during the epic Champions League semifinal doubleheader last month. But here was Sterling, the Football Writers' Footballer of the Year, slipping away from Van Dijk, who ended the campaign with the other individual award in English football, the PFA Player of the Year.

Yet just as Sterling appeared to have beaten his man, Van Dijk recovered and reclaimed the ball to keep his remarkable record intact.

Van Dijk has made 58 appearances for club and country this season and, with one more 90-minute match on the horizon, he has the chance to go through an entire campaign without one player being able to go past him with the ball. But that final 90 minutes before a deserved holiday happens to be the UEFA Nations League final against Portugal in Porto on Sunday -- 2:45 p.m. ET on ESPN -- and he arguably faces the biggest test of all when he goes up against Cristiano Ronaldo.

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Even at 34, Ronaldo remains locked in his seemingly endless battle with Messi for the distinction of being regarded as the best player on the planet. While Messi waits to take the field at this summer's Copa America with Argentina -- all of it live on ESPN+ in the U.S. -- Ronaldo's impressive hat trick against Switzerland in Wednesday's 3-1 semifinal victory highlighted his enduring ability to turn a game on its head.

Ronaldo showcased his dazzling talents against the Swiss -- his pace, trickery, power and skill on the dribble -- so Van Dijk really will face the acid test of his defensive credentials at Estadio do Dragao. But there is more at stake for Van Dijk this weekend than merely the safeguarding his record of resisting all attempts to dribble past him this season.

Eight days after lifting the European Cup with Liverpool following the Champions League final victory against Tottenham in Madrid, the 27-year-old can make it a Euro double by helping Netherlands become the first winners of the Nations League. But on a personal level, Van Dijk can also hammer out his claims to become the leading contender for this year's Ballon d'Or by keeping Ronaldo quiet on Sunday.

The race to win the Ballon d'Or is perhaps as open as it has been for over a decade but Van Dijk is firmly positioned among the front-runners and could become the first defender to claim the prize since Fabio Cannavaro received the award in 2006 after captaining Italy to World Cup success. Luka Modric broke the Ronaldo-Messi stranglehold on the award by winning in 2018, becoming the first player outside the modern game's two great icons to win the trophy since Kaka in 2007. Van Dijk is now emerging as the favourite to top the voting this year, with Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman backing his captain to claim a rare victory for a defender.

"He deserves the Ballon d'Or," Koeman said. "Everyone is often focused on players who score or create goals, or produce decisive goals. But if there is ever a moment to give the Ballon d'Or to a defender, it is now.

"Messi is the best player, but I also think you should win big trophies such as the Champions League to be in the picture for the Ballon d'Or."

Van Dijk already has the Champions League in the bag, and some would argue that he had Messi in his pocket during the semifinal second leg at Anfield, when Liverpool's remarkable 4-0 victory overturned a 3-0 first-leg defeat to send them to the final. But Ronaldo will still believe he should be the front-runner for this year's Ballon d'Or after becoming the first player to win domestic titles in England, Spain and Italy following his move to Juventus this season. The former Manchester United and Real Madrid forward is an outsider for this year's award, with Juventus stumbling at the quarterfinal stage in the Champions League, but he will do his cause no harm if he can lead Portugal to Nations League success.

Van Dijk's Liverpool teammates Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah will also be in the frame for the Ballon d'Or, and Messi, having helped Barcelona to the La Liga title, cannot be discounted. But if he can resist Ronaldo's unique talents on Sunday and help the Dutch to victory in Porto, Van Dijk will become the favourite to win the Ballon d'Or. He has made defending look like an art form at times this season with his strength, pace and reading of the game making him a majestic figure at the back for Liverpool and Netherlands.

If Ronaldo can't beat him on Sunday, who can?

Scotland captain Kyle Coetzer has been awarded an MBE for services to cricket in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.

Coetzer, 35, has played 52 ODIs and 48 T20Is alongside scoring 4404 runs in his first-class career and more than 5000 in List A cricket. He is Scotland's all-time leading run-scorer and made their first World Cup century, against Bangladesh, in 2015.

He led the team to their historic ODI victory over England in Edinburgh last year.

"It's very special and a huge honour to be awarded an MBE," he said. "It's not something you ever consider, and it was a huge shock to hear the news. A special thank you to my family, friends and colleagues who have played a huge part in supporting me in my cricketing journey.

"Huge credit must also go to all my amazing team-mates, coaches and back room staff who have helped guide and shape me towards this special award. I couldn't have done it without every one of you."

Tony Brian, the chairman of Cricket Scotland, said: "This is a richly deserved award for one of Scotland's best and most iconic cricketers in the 250 years of the sport.

"Kyle has been an inspirational player and captain who has led the men's team through its most successful period ever including the never to be forgotten win against England in June 2018."

CHICAGO -- Valentina Shevchenko's first title defense ended in highlight-reel fashion.

Shevchenko blasted challenger Jessica Eye with a left head kick 26 seconds into the second round that knocked Eye out cold in the co-main event of UFC 238 on Saturday night at the United Center. Shevchenko successfully retained the UFC women's flyweight title with the spectacular knockout.

Eye was down and unconscious for about a minute, and when she came to she was unaware of what had happened.

The only other head-kick knockout in a women's UFC title fight was by Holly Holm, when she defeated Ronda Rousey at UFC 193 in 2015.

Shevchenko landed two takedowns in the first round and completely dominated the first five minutes in top position. Near the end of the round, Shevchenko went for a kimura submission, but Eye managed to escape and survive until the bell.

Early in the second round, Shevchenko went for a left kick, making it seem as if it were targeted for Eye's midsection. Instead, the kick went to the head and Eye was not prepared for it. The blow landed and Eye immediately crumpled to the canvas on her back.

Shevchenko (17-3) has now won three straight and her only losses in the UFC have come against Amanda Nunes, who holds the UFC women's bantamweight and featherweight titles. Before Saturday, the Kyrgyzstan native had not scored a TKO/KO in her UFC career. Shevchenko, 31, is the sixth fighter in UFC championship history to notch a head-kick knockout.

Eye (14-7, 1 NC) saw her three-fight winning streak snapped. The 32-year-old Cleveland native had not lost since moving down to flyweight from bantamweight.

CHICAGO -- What was turning into a classic bout ended in a way no one really wanted.

Tony Ferguson defeated Donald Cerrone by TKO at the end of the second round Saturday at UFC 238 when it was ruled by ringside doctors that Cerrone could not continue. Cerrone's right eye was swollen shut after a dominant second round by Ferguson.

It was a back-and-forth, bloody encounter until that point between two of the best lightweights and most popular fighters in the world.

At the end of the second round at United Center, Ferguson landed a right hand on Cerrone's face after the bell. Referee Dan Miragliotta ruled after watching a replay that, though the punch landed, it didn't hit Cerrone in the eye, but the nose. Miragliotta said it therefore was not a foul that directly caused the finish and Ferguson would win by TKO.

Had Miragliotta ruled the foul caused the finish, it would have been a disqualification or no contest.

"The punch had nothing to do with it," Cerrone said afterward. "That was the fight I think everybody wanted. I don't quit, I don't back down. I just want to keep fighting."

Cerrone won the first round, bloodying Ferguson with hard jabs and right hands. In the second, Ferguson took over as the body kicks he landed in the first round began to add up. Ferguson landed a barrage of jabs and straight rights to bust up Cerrone's nose and leave him bloody. Ferguson also smashed Cerrone with a spinning back elbow.

The end of the round and the way it finished marred what was becoming one of the year's best fights.

"It's not how I wanted the fight to go," Ferguson said. "It's really emotional in here."

UFC president Dana White said at the postfight news conference that Cerrone was transported to the hospital because of a broken right orbital bone.

Ferguson (26-3) is the pretty clear-cut No. 1 contender to the lightweight title after the victory. But the 35-year-old nicknamed "El Cucuy" said he would be OK with a Cerrone rematch next.

"We can throw it back, I don't mind doing that," Ferguson said. "I really don't. He's a hell of a f---ing fighter."

Cerrone (36-12, 1 NC) had his three-fight winning streak snapped with the defeat.

NEW YORK -- Gennady Golovkin entered the ring to face unheralded Steve Rolls on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden well aware of what had transpired one week earlier when huge underdog Andy Ruiz Jr. pulled a massive upset by knocking out England's Anthony Joshua.

Rolls said all week that he was inspired by Ruiz's performance as he attempted to author his own monumental upset in the same ring, but GGG would have none of it.

Instead, Golovkin, the former unified middleweight world champion, scored a massive fourth-round knockout in their super middleweight bout contracted at 164 pounds before an announced crowd of 12,357.

Golovkin, one of boxing's biggest stars, was participating in his first nontitle fight since 2010 and returning from a nine-month layoff following his disputed majority decision loss to rival Canelo Alvarez. Their rematch cost Golovkin his unified middleweight title and ended his division-record-tying run of 20 consecutive defenses.

The fight against Rolls was something of new beginning for Golovkin, who was in his first fight with trainer Johnathon Banks after parting ways with longtime trainer Abel Sanchez. It also kicked off a six-fight, three-year, nine-figure deal with sports streaming service DAZN, which signed him after the expiration of his contract with HBO as the network exited from the boxing business at the end of last year.

Golovkin followed Alvarez to DAZN hoping to set up a third fight with him in September, and it is likely he will get it, although Alvarez's handlers at Golden Boy Promotions told ESPN earlier Saturday that they will sit down with Alvarez next week to go over their plans for his fall fight.

"I feel great. I feel like a new baby. Right now, I feel completely different because I came back to my knockout. I love knockouts, and I love New York. It was a great night all around," said Golovkin, who was saddled with a hugely controversial draw against Alvarez that most thought GGG won when the pair met for the first time, in 2017.

With Rolls violently dismissed, the question was, "Who's next?" The answer was as expected as the outcome of the fight.

"Everybody knows. The fans know who they want me to fight next," Golovkin said. "I'm ready for September. I'm ready for Canelo. Just bring him, just ask him. I'm ready. If you want big drama show, please tell him. I'm ready to bring back the big-drama show."

But does Golovkin believe the third fight will happen?

"I believe, because this is boxing. This is boxing business. Why not? The next fight will be amazing for us," Golovkin said. "I feel right now like the people's champ. It doesn't matter for me. I want to beat him, but [the belts don't] matter. I'm the people's champion."

From the outset, Golovkin went after Rolls (19-1, 10 KOs), 35, of Toronto, who was facing his first name opponent; Rolls hung in for a few rounds but ultimately could not take GGG's power.

Golovkin went to the body late in the first round and sunk in a hard left hook and then a left hook to the head that got Rolls' attention. Golovkin continued the same line of attack in the second round and landed clean punches, but Rolls landed his own clean shots, including a left hand that snapped Golovkin's head straight back.

Golovkin began to get closer and closer to Rolls in the fourth round.

Golovkin (39-1-1, 35 KOs), 37, a Kazakhstan native fighting out of Santa Monica, California, backed Rolls up with a right hand and seemed to sense that he was hurt. He let his punches fly as Rolls looked to cover up and bob and weave to avoid the incoming salvo. But Golovkin eventually got in a massive left hook that landed on Rolls' chin and dropped him face first to the canvas. His eyes were glassy, but he tried to get up before eventually collapsing in a heap into the ropes; referee Steve Willis waved off the fight at 2 minutes, 9 seconds as the fans celebrated.

"He gave it a good go, a really good go, and he hurt GGG once in that second round," Rolls' promoter, Lou DiBella, said. "When you give it a go against a great fighter, you leave yourself open, and he got caught. I'm proud of him."

According to CompuBox statistics, Golovkin landed 62 of 223 punches (28 percent) and Rolls connected with 38 of 175 (22 percent). Banks said he was pleased with what he saw from GGG in their first fight together but said there is room for improvement.

"It's always good to get a knockout. I liked what I saw in the ring for the short amount of time we had in camp, but we can do better with a full camp," Banks said. "We're going in the right direction."

That direction is likely toward the third showdown with Alvarez.

On the undercard

• Super middleweight Ali Akhmedov (15-0, 11 KOs), 23, of Kazakhstan and promoted by Golovkin, stopped Marcus McDaniel (15-1, 2 KOs), 35, of New Orleans, with ease in the third round to win a vacant regional title. Akhmedov backed McDaniel into the ropes and landed several punches to drive him to the mat. McDaniel beat the count, but when he turned his back and walked away, referee Benjy Esteves stopped the fight at 1:41.

• Welterweight Brian Ceballo (9-0, 4 KOs), 25, a five-time New York Golden Gloves champion from Brooklyn, routed Bakhtiyar Eyubov (14-1-1, 12 KOs), 32, a Kazakhstan native fighting out of Houston, in an action-packed fight. The judges had it 80-72, 79-73 and 78-74 for Ceballo, who stepped up in competition, looked sharp and pasted the slower, defensively deficient Eyubov with combinations. But Eyubov never stopped plowing forward looking for a big punch.

• Junior middleweight Israil Madrimov (3-0, 3 KOs), 24, a big-time prospect and former amateur standout from Uzbekistan, battered Norberto Gonzalez (24-13, 13 KOs), 38, of Mexico, in a one-sided sixth-round knockout. Gonzalez, in his second fight in eight days, was game, but when Madrimov, who fights out of Indio, California, rocked him in the sixth round and unloaded numerous follow-up punches, referee Shawn Clark stopped it at 49 seconds.

• Junior middleweight Charles Conwell (10-0, 7 KOs), 21, a 2016 U.S. Olympian from Cleveland, handily outpointed Courtney Pennington (12-3-3, 5 KOs), 32, of Brooklyn, to win a vacant regional title on scores of 97-92, 97-92 and 96-93. Pennington was docked a point for holding in the fifth round and suffered a cut over his right eye from a punch in the eighth round.

• Exciting middleweight prospect "White Chocolate" Nikita Ababiy (5-0, 5 KOs), 20, of Brooklyn, needed only 41 seconds to stop Juan Francisco Barajas (5-1, 3 KOs), 29, of Mexico, putting him away with a left to the body.

CHICAGO -- Henry Cejudo has an Olympic wrestling gold medal. He has the UFC flyweight title. And now, one of the best combat sport athletes of all time has added some more gold to his collection: the UFC bantamweight title belt.

Cejudo, 32, stopped Marlon Moraes via TKO with ground and pound at 4:51 of the third round Saturday night in the main event of UFC 238 at United Center. The bout was for the vacant bantamweight title forfeited earlier this year by TJ Dillashaw because of a failed drug test.

"I'm not champ-champ," Cejudo said in an impassioned postfight speech. "My name is Triple C -- Olympic champion, flyweight champion of the world and now bantamweight champion of the world. I'm the greatest combat athlete of all time and I just stole the title of best pound-for-pound fighter too."

Moraes clearly won the first round. It looked as if his speed would give Cejudo trouble all night. He was throwing lightning-fast combinations and landing. Cejudo had some reddening on his right cheek from punches and his lead leg was getting messed up by Moraes kicks.

But in the second round, Cejudo said he saw Moraes change. He said Moraes was throwing with too much power and running out of gas.

"His demeanor showed everything," Cejudo said.

Cejudo was bloodied in a wild round. But he landed big knees to Moraes' head in a Thai clinch. The two traded haymakers as the round came to a close. In the third, Cejudo took over. He busted up Moraes' nose with punches, crushed him with a knee to the body, took him down and took top position. Moraes rained elbows and punches down on Moraes until referee Marc Goddard stepped in to stop it.

Afterward, Cejudo said he had a "hit list." He called out former bantamweight champions Dominick Cruz and Cody Garbrandt, as well as legend Urijah Faber. "The Messenger" said he also wanted to go up to featherweight and fight for a third title there.

"I want to start getting paid," Cejudo said. "I want to start making heavyweight money."

Cejudo (15-2) said he had a severely sprained ankle heading into the fight but overcame it despite the pain. The Arizona resident is just the fourth fighter in UFC history to hold two titles simultaneously (Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier and Amanda Nunes are the others).

McGregor tweeted his congratulations to Cejudo, who has won five straight bouts.

Congratulations Henry Cejudo! Welcome to the club ? https://t.co/xF2BHGfr9n

— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) June 9, 2019

Moraes (22-6-1) saw his four-fight winning streak come to an end. Before Saturday, the 31-year-old New Jersey resident had only one loss since 2011.

SAN DIEGO -- Max Scherzer shrugged off taking a comebacker off his calf and got out of the only inning in which the San Diego Padres threatened.

Scherzer struck out nine in seven shutout innings and Brian Dozier hit a two-run home run for his 1,000th career hit to lead the Washington Nationals to a 4-1 victory Saturday night.

"I've been hit in the calf before. I know it (stinks) and you've got to see if it's going to tighten up on you," Scherzer said. "I felt like I could still go back out there and pitch and still get through it even though it didn't feel good to run but I was able to still pitch.

"That's when you just get rid of all the excuses of why you might fail and just come up with reasons why you want to win. Just continue to make pitches and execute pitches the way you need to."

Scherzer (4-5) allowed six hits and issued only one walk, an intentional pass.

He got into trouble in only the second inning. Eric Hosmer and Franmil Reyes reached on singles before rookie Josh Naylor hit a ball off Scherzer. The runners advanced as Scherzer recovered the ball and threw out Naylor.

Hosmer broke for home on Ian Kinsler's grounder to third and was caught in a rundown. Rookie Austin Allen was intentionally walked to load the base and Lauer struck out to end the inning.

"They've got a lot of threats," Scherzer said. "You don't make the right pitch, they can take you deep. They've got some good power hitters. I was able to avoid a big inning. I knew coming into this game it was going to be a challenge and turned out to be a little different challenge."

Manager Dave Martinez said Scherzer staying in the game "doesn't surprise me a bit. He got hit pretty hard and he was sore but he wanted to pitch. Went out there and gave us what we needed to get. That's just who Max Scherzer is.

"He's going to be stiff tomorrow I'm sure, but we've got an extra day and we'll see how it plays out."

Said Padres manager Andy Green: "He's good. We know that. That inning where we had second and third; first and second and he takes a ball off his calf and he keeps us from scoring there. We put a good swing on him with Kinsler. Sometimes you struggle to find a run against a guy like that.

"Wasn't necessarily as electric of a fastball as you see from him from time to time. Pretty obviously he was feeling that ball off his calf a little bit but he pitched well," Green said.

Sean Doolittle got the final out for his 14th save after rookie Austin Allen hit a two-out RBI single.

Dozier, who signed with the Nationals as a free agent in January, homered to left off Eric Lauer in fourth, his 10th. Howie Kendrick was aboard on a leadoff walk.

"I think it's pretty cool but I don't really put too much emphasis in records and all that kind of stuff," Dozier said. "I think it's cool playing a while. More importantly a big win coming off of last night. We let one slip away and bounced back and to do what we did tonight is pretty good."

Kendrick and Anthony Rendon added RBI singles off Eric Lauer for the Nationals, who lost the first two games of this series by identical 5-4 scores.

Lauer (5-5) had won three straight starts coming in. He allowed four runs, three earned, on seven hits in seven innings and struck out five.

DRAFT PICK

The Padres' first-round draft pick, SS C.J. Abrams of Blessed Trinity High in Roswell, Georgia, agreed to a $5.2 million bonus. He and three other draft picks threw ceremonial first pitches.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Nationals: RHP Trevor Rosenthal returned from a rehab assignment and was reinstated from the 10-day IL. RHP Kyle McGowin was optioned to Triple-A Fresno to make room on the roster.

Padres: C Austin Hedges was a late scratch with a sprained left ankle. Green said he stepped on a ball in the dugout after batting practice. ... Rookie SS Fernando Tatis was rested after having two big games in his return from the injured list. He made the last out as a pinch-hitter. ... RHP Adam Warren was placed on the 10-day IL with a strained right forearm strain and RHP Gerardo Reyes was recalled from Triple-A El Paso. INF Jose Pirela was reinstated from the IL and optioned to El Paso.

UP NEXT

Nationals: RHP Stephen Strasburg (5-3, 3.19) is scheduled to start the series finale against his hometown team. He is 3-1 with a 3.12 ERA in four career starts in San Diego. He played at San Diego State under the late Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn.

Padres: RHP Luis Perdomo (1-0, 4.08) is scheduled to be the starter in a "bullpen game" Sunday.

---

More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Adrian Beltre got one more tap on the top of the head from Elvis Andrus, and a visit by the person who brought the four-time All-Star third baseman up to the major leagues as a teenager.

The Rangers retired Beltre's No. 29 jersey on Saturday night after he spent the last eight of his 21 major league seasons in Texas.

Among the special guests on the field was Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda, who was the interim general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers when Beltre was first called up by them in 1998 for his big league debut at age 19 -- and never went back down.

Lasorda was the team's manager when he first went to the Dominican Republic to see Beltre, who was only 15 when he first signed with the Dodgers as an amateur free agent in July 1994. Lasorda said he talked to Beltre many times over the years and told him he had "all of the ability in the world, just don't mess it up."

Beltre went on to collect 3,166 career hits, the most by a foreign-born player, and 477 homers. He was a .286 hitter with 1,707 RBIs in 2,933 career games. The five-time Gold Glove winner played 2,759 games at third base -- only Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson had more.

After Beltre had slipped on a gift from his former teammates that had been presented by Andrus -- a plush long blue robe with Beltre's name and number on the back -- the Rangers' shortstop made another playful tap on the head before running away. Beltre doesn't like being touched there, and Andrus was usually the prime instigator after Beltre homered or had other big hits for Texas.

Beltre's jersey is the fourth retired by the Rangers, plus the No. 42 retired by MLB in 1997 to honor Jackie Robinson.

Two years ago, just a couple of weeks after Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez was inducted into the Hall of Fame, Texas retired the No. 7 worn by the perennial All-Star catcher. The other numbers retired by the Rangers are the No. 26 of the late Johnny Oates, the manager who led them to their first three AL West titles over a four-year span in the late 1990s, and the No. 34 of Nolan Ryan.

Among several video messages played during the ceremony were from Hall of Fame third basemen George Brett, Mike Schmidt and Chipper Jones. All of them told Beltre they would see him in Cooperstown when he becomes eligible for election in 2024.

"You had more fun than anybody I saw play the game of baseball," Brett said.

"Five years from now you will be first ballot ... can't wait to sit behind you when you're making your speech," Schmidt said.

Beltre played for the Dodgers until 2004, and then played for the Seattle Mariners (2005-09) and Boston Red Sox (2010) before he joined the Rangers on a $96 million, six-year free-agent deal in 2011. He appeared in his only World Series in his first season with Texas.

The ceremony was held between games of a day-night doubleheader against the Oakland Athletics.

"The way he played the game and how he enjoyed it, that's probably what I remembered most, other than thorns he's stuck in my side during games," said A's manager Bob Melvin, who watched the ceremony from the visitors dugout. "He's just such a great personality for the game. We'll all miss him."

The umpires working the A's series include crew chief Gerry Davis, who two years ago ejected Beltre from a home game the same week the Rangers third baseman was closing in on his 3,000th career hit. When Davis motioned for him to get closer to the on-deck circle, Beltre instead dragged the large plastic mat marking the circle closer to him and got tossed.

Shohei Ohtani gave Yusei Kikuchi a rude welcome Saturday, hitting a home run and a single off of the Seattle Mariners rookie in the first MLB matchup between the Japanese stars.

With about 80 members of the Japanese media looking on at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California, Ohtani beat out an infield single in the first inning, then grounded out to first in the second.

In the fourth inning, Ohtani became the third consecutive Angels batter to take Kikuchi deep. In a span of four pitches, Tommy La Stella and Mike Trout started the inning with back-to-back homers before Ohtani hit the first offering he saw over the left-center-field fence.

The Angels hadn't hit three consecutive homers since September 2016, also against Seattle. A Japanese-born batter hadn't homered off a Japanese-born pitcher in the majors since July 8, 2009, when Kosuke Fukudome connected off Kenshin Kawakami.

"I was trying to treat it like a normal game and a normal at-bat, but there was something special about it,'' Ohtani said through an interpreter. "I mean, we went to the same high school. I'm glad that we got the results we wanted, though.''

Ohtani celebrated with obvious glee, even flexing his muscles in the dugout -- although he was only mimicking a previous gesture by teammate Kole Calhoun, he said.

"That's the most excited I've seen him on a homer,'' Trout said. "I think I would be, too, if I went to the same high school. I'd be excited, too. I'd never seen him like that. It was pretty cool.''

Kikuchi lasted three more batters before being pulled. Ohtani kept up his hot hitting against reliever Tayler Scott, adding an RBI double in the fifth inning and finished 3-for-5 in the Angels' 12-3 win.

Ohtani, 24, and Kikuchi, 27, attended Hanamaki Higashi High School in Japan but missed each other by a year. They faced off five times in Japan's top league before Ohtani left to begin the next chapter in his revolutionary two-way career.

Although they haven't been able to meet up for dinner yet this year, they've stayed in touch since Kikuchi arrived in the majors one season after Ohtani, the 2018 AL Rookie of the Year.

"I'm very proud of the fact that we faced each other on the highest level in baseball,'' Ohtani said. "Hopefully we get to do it a lot more.''

Kikuchi's ERA is up to 4.99 after he took his third consecutive loss while giving up nine hits and six earned runs to the Angels, who have scored 16 earned runs against him over three starts.

"They hit three home runs off me today, so I didn't like what happened, including Ohtani,'' Kikuchi said through an interpreter. "But I want to make sure next time I go out there and pitch against the Angels, I want to shut them down and do it for the team.''

"He's going to be OK,'' Seattle manager Scott Servais said of Kikuchi. "On the homers, he just didn't get the ball where he wanted to. The ball to Ohtani was just a curveball that stayed up. It happens.''

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

CLEVELAND -- Sometimes, karma's a busted lip.

Barely a week after admonishing one of his teammates for slamming away a helmet in anger, a bloodied Brett Gardner sustained a unique injury Saturday when his own helmet-tossing episode went awry.

Instead of dropping innocently to the floor after it was rifled against a wall in the New York Yankees' dugout, Gardner's helmet bounced violently back to him, unexpectedly striking him in the mouth.

Six stitches, a sizeable clot and a fat bottom lip later, the outfielder sheepishly admitted to reporters that his frustrations at the plate got the better of him.

He said he learned a lesson, too: "I won't throw my helmet again."

How badly did it hurt?

"Not as bad as getting the stitches put in," Gardner said.

It was in the top of the sixth inning of the Yankees' 8-4 loss to the Cleveland Indians when Progressive Field was jolted by a loud boom along the ballpark's first-base side. At first, it sounded like something ricocheted hard off the facing of a stadium deck or a box-section window.

Something ricocheted, all right. And right into Gardner's face.

"[It was] just frustration building up," said Gardner, who is in the middle of an 0-for-19 stretch hitting.

Gardner's most recent hit was five games ago, in a victory over the rival Boston Red Sox. It came at the end of a five-game hitting streak, and was part of a stretch in which Gardner had hits in 11 of 12 games.

"Just got to keep plugging away with it, and making sure when you do get a pitch, when you do get a good fastball to hit, you've got to take advantage of those situations," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of Gardner's recent struggles.

Just before the sixth-inning tantrum, Cleveland had broken a 2-2 tie and taken a two-run lead thanks to a double and an Oscar Mercado home run in the bottom of the fifth. That added to the frustration as Gardner wanted to do something to help get his team back into the game.

As the Yankees' leadoff hitter the next half-inning, he swung hard at a 91.9 mph fastball right down the middle of the plate. The line drive traveled deep into the right-center gap -- 376 feet away. At first glance, it looked as though it had a chance to fly over the wall.

But Cleveland's right fielder, Jordan Luplow stalked the fly ball and snagged it just as he crashed into the fence.

"To hit a ball like that and it's an out, yeah, just frustrated," Gardner said. "I told Boone if I hadn't done it [thrown the helmet] then, I would've done it after my next at-bat. Either way."

Gardner grounded out sharply to second base in the eighth inning, capping the 0-for-19 stretch he's scuffling through.

Although typically mild-mannered away from the field, Gardner acknowledged to reporters that he can "get pretty angry often" on it. A few seasons ago at Minnesota, he got upset and threw his helmet.

"It came back and hit me in the head and gave me a big goose egg," Gardner said.

This time, the helmet-throwing landed Gardner in the trainer's room, where a half-hour after the game, he was getting six stitches -- without numbing fluid -- from the inside of his bottom lip all the way out. The stitches go right down the middle of his lip. They made it tough to speak, and might affect the way he eats and drinks. Thankfully, he said, there were no cameras in the clubhouse when he spoke.

Gardner has had stitches in his lip before from a rare -- yet more common -- baseball injury. During spring training several seasons ago, he fouled a ball off the plate, and it bounced up and hit him in the mouth. Those five stitches went about a quarter-inch to the left of where his current ones are.