ANAHEIM — If only the Angels didn’t wait until the ninth inning to start hitting.
After spending most of Tuesday’s game doing nothing at the plate, the Angels threatened in the ninth inning, only to come up short in a 3-2 loss to the New York Yankees.
For the first seven innings, the Angels were blanked by Yankees left-hander Carlos Rodón. They trailed 3-0 when they came to bat in the bottom of the ninth.
Yoán Moncada led off with a home run. Taylor Ward and Luis Rengifo singled, and Ward scored on a Jo Adell ground ball, cutting the deficit to one. Pinch-hitter Logan O’Hoppe came to the plate with two outs, representing the winning run, and he hit a pop-up on a 3-and-0 pitch that was barely above the zone.
“You play to win the game,” O’Hoppe said. “Play to win the game. I took a shot. I can sleep comfortably tonight knowing that you take a shot to end it. Of course people are going to disagree, because it was a little bit out of the zone. But you play to win. You don’t play to not lose, and that’s all I was doing.”
Manager Ron Washington, who typically is the one to decide if a hitter has the green light on 3-and-0, had no issue with O’Hoppe’s decision to swing.
“I thought it was a good idea,” Washington said. “If he catches that ball and hits a double or hits it out of the ballpark, everybody’s happy. That was our shot right there. He had to throw a strike.”
Instead, it went down as the fourth straight loss for the Angels, who reached the one-third point of the season with a 25-29 record. The recent stretch has been a rollercoaster. After averaging 7.6 runs during their eight-game winning streak, they’ve scored a total of five runs in their losing streak.
“It seems like when we go bad, everybody goes bad,” Washington said. “We’re searching. We’re working. We’re putting in the time, and we’ve just got to get it done between those white lines.”
The continuation of the slump on Tuesday was predictable because Rodón came into the game holding opponents to a major-league low .161 batting average. Rodón is having one of his best seasons, with a 2.60 ERA through 12 starts.
The Angels had five hits and no walks in seven scoreless innings against Rodón, striking out 10 times.
Their best opportunity to score was in the second inning, when Travis d’Arnaud led off with a double. Rengifo then hit a grounder to third, which couldn’t even move d’Arnaud up 90 feet. Adell and Chris Taylor both struck out.
In the third, Zach Neto and Nolan Schanuel had back-to-back singles with one out, but then Moncada and Ward struck out.
Angels starter Tyler Anderson had the unenviable task of trying to match zeroes with Rodon, and doing so against a Yankees’ lineup that led the majors with an .883 OPS against lefties.
Anderson, who was coming off back-to-back rough outings, did a commendable job, allowing one earned run in six innings. Anderson said some back tightness earlier in the month led to a subtle change in his delivery, which contributed to the six walks in his previous outing.
“After the last couple I had, just wanted to bounce back and be in the zone more,” Anderson said. “Had one walk tonight, which I didn’t want to have. But just in general, should be back in the zone more and give us a chance.”
Anderson didn’t get the support of his hitters or center fielder Matthew Lugo, who misplayed a routine fly ball at the warning track for a three-base error that led to the Yankees’ second run, in the sixth inning.
“Those type of plays have got to be made,” Washington said. “And we didn’t. It was a play that should have been made and they capitalized on it.”
For the most part, Anderson handled the Yankees’ dangerous lineup. His best moment was in the third inning, when the Yankees had two runners on in front of Aaron Judge. Anderson got the two-time American League MVP on a groundout.
Anderson struck out Judge in their next meeting. Judge singled in the first inning.
Anderson’s biggest mistake was a hanging changeup on a 1-and-2 pitch to Ben Rice, who hit a homer.
“I thought he was good,” Washington said. “He gave up the home run to Rice, but he handled everybody in that lineup. He really did give us six good innings, and we can’t ask any more. What we had to do was support him a little bit with some runs.”
At least they finally scored a couple in the ninth, which Washington hopes can lead to something better.
“I saw some life,” Washington said. “Hopefully what we just did at the end can go into tomorrow and we can put some runs on the board. I think if we start putting some runs on the board here it’ll take care of everything. We just haven’t been able to put runs on the board.”
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