Angels blow late lead in walk-off loss to Fernando Tatis Jr., Padres

SAN DIEGO — The relentless baseball season doesn’t allow much time to celebrate success.

A day after the Angels were rejoicing over their ninth-inning comeback victory, they gave away a two-run lead in the eighth and lost, 6-4, to the Padres in the ninth on Tuesday night.

Kenley Jansen gave up a walk-off, two-run homer to Fernando Tatis Jr. to end it.

“It’s definitely frustrating, man,” Jansen said. “It’s definitely frustrating when you see that game. We take the lead late, score a few runs. For us to give it away like that, it’s definitely frustrating. I’m annoyed right now.”

While the Angels have had plenty of bullpen issues this season, most of them have involved the pitchers they’ve auditioned as potential setup men to get the ball to the ninth inning.

This time, they handed a 4-2 eighth-inning lead to right-hander Ryan Zeferjahn, thanks to José Soriano’s seven strong innings and a three-run rally in the top of the seventh, including Matthew Lugo’s go-ahead, pinch-hit two-run homer.

Zeferjahn was facing the top of the Padres’ lineup, and things began to get away.

Zeferjahn walked Tatis and, one out later, Manny Machado.

“I think just kind of overthrowing maybe a little bit on the offspeed,” Zeferjahn said. “I don’t usually yank them that much. And tonight, I just couldn’t make the in-game adjustment. I gotta get back out there tomorrow and figure it out.”

Zeferjahn got the second out on a three-pitch strikeout of dangerous cleanup hitter Jackson Merrill. He then appeared to be out of the inning when Gavin Sheets hit a pop-up into shallow left.

Left fielder Taylor Ward, who hit a tie-breaking grand slam on Monday, got a bad jump on it, and couldn’t get there in time. Shortstop Zach Neto also had a shot at it, but he couldn’t come up with the play, as one run scored.

“I wish (Ward) wouldn’t have got a bad jump,” Manager Ron Washington said. “That inning would have been over, and we’d have been going into the ninth with a lead instead of having to save the ballgame.”

Even after Ward’s mistake, the Angels still had a chance to escape with the lead. But catcher Logan O’Hoppe had a pitch bounce away from him and Machado took off from third. O’Hoppe flipped the ball to Zeferjahn covering the plate, but he dropped the ball.

“I put the tag on him pretty quick,” Zeferjahn said. “If I just catch it, I think we have a chance (at the out).”

All of that spoiled the performances of Soriano, who worked seven strong innings, and Lugo, whose pinch-hit, two-run homer put the Angels ahead 4-2 in the seventh.

Lugo came up as a pinch-hitter just after Jo Adell had tied the score with a double. He hammered the first pitch he saw over the left field fence. It was the second homer for Lugo, both of them as a pinch-hitter, in his first five major-league games. He’s also tripled.

“He’s been very impressive,” Washington said. “He’s certainly putting some good at-bats together, and I think we’re gonna have to see a lot more of him.”

Soriano did not give up an earned run in seven innings. Considering Soriano was facing one of the best lineups in baseball, it was an impressive performance in a season that has been a mixed bag for Soriano.

Soriano had pitched at least six innings while allowing one or zero runs in three of his first eight starts, but the other five games were mediocre, giving him an ERA of 4.00 before Tuesday’s start.

Aside from a scare on a Merrill fly ball to the warning track in the first inning, Soriano didn’t get in trouble until the fifth inning.

Soriano issued a leadoff walk to Xander Bogaerts and then he gave up a single to Jake Cronenworth. The Padres parlayed that into two unearned runs, thanks to an error by Adell in right field and a bad throw from O’Hoppe. One of the runs scored on O’Hoppe’s bad throw and the second on a suicide squeeze.

Soriano stuck around to give the Angels two more innings, including one after they took the lead.

“I think it’s one of the best (games),” Soriano said through an interpreter. “I attacked the zone. I threw strikes. I had better results.”

Soriano’s finished with a three-pitch strikeout of Elias Diaz, stranding two runners in the seventh. He finished with a career-high 107 pitches. By extending himself, Soriano plugged the hole the Angels had in their bullpen. They had been trying to find someone to get the ball to Zeferjahn.

It still didn’t work.

“He got out of that inning and we had it set up exactly the way we wanted,” Washington said. “And our two best guys just didn’t get it done tonight.”

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