TAMPA, Fla. — The Angels and Tampa Bay Rays each loaded the bases in the first inning.
The Angels got nothing. The Rays hit a grand slam.
As you might expect, that was the ballgame. The Angels lost, 5-4, on Wednesday night, as their three-game winning streak came to an end.
The Angels (7-4) had won all four of their previous one-run games this season.
All of the runs for both teams scored on homers to right field. The Angels got two solo homers from Kyren Paris, who has now hit four homers in his last three games.
“He’s swinging the bat well,” Manager Ron Washington said. “Each day he comes to the ballpark, he continues to swing the bat. We needed everything he gave us tonight. We just fell short.”
The Angels also got solo homers from Jorge Soler, who has hit three homers in his last four games, and Taylor Ward.
Even though the Angels out-homered the Rays 4-2, none of them did the damage of the first homer of the night, from Rays outfielder José Caballero.
Angels left-hander Yusei Kikuchi threw a fastball over the outer half of the plate and Caballero lifted it 327 feet to right field. It was the shortest homer in the majors so far this season. The Rays matched it when Yandy Diaz hit another 327-foot homer against Reid Detmers in the seventh. That proved to be the difference in the game.
Neither would have gotten out in any other major league ballpark, but they were homers at George Steinbrenner Field. The Rays are playing this season in a minor league ballpark because of hurricane damage to Tropicana Field. This is the New York Yankees’ spring training home, so the dimensions are modeled after Yankee Stadium.
“When I look out there I see 314 (feet down the line),” Washington said. “That’s Yankee stadium. We’re in Yankee Mini Stadium. If you can catch the ball going to right field, it usually goes out.”
Even though the Caballero homer was not crushed, Kikuchi still accepted responsibility for making a bad pitch.
“He got good wood on it,” Kikuchi said through his interpreter. “He might have been looking for that.”
Kikuchi said the Rays were on his fastball in the first.
“I think they were attacking the heater there in the first inning,” Kikuchi said. “So I should have noticed that and made the adjustment there, but we’ll get them next time.”
After the first, Kikuchi got through the sixth without allowing another run. In three starts this season, Kikuchi has pitched exactly six innings each time, allowing three runs twice and four runs once. Asked to evaluate the his first three starts as a whole, Kikuchi said: “Not good, not bad. I’m starting to get a feel for all my pitches. I think it’ll be very soon I’ll put everything together.”
Washington said they need Kikuchi to slip into the gear he found after the grand slam from the first pitch.
“After that, he put up five zeros,” Washington said. “He just started pounding the strike zone. Started being aggressive. That’s what it’s going to take. He’s just going to have to be aggressive from the first pitch, because it seemed like every time he gets in trouble, then he bears down. So we’ve just got to keep working until we get him where we need to have him.”
The Angels had a chance to get Kikuchi a lead before he threw his first pitch, when they loaded the bases in the first on a single and two walks. Logan O’Hoppe – the Angels’ hottest hitter – then struck out. Yoán Moncada also struck out.
Moncada then left the game, having aggravated his sore right thumb. It’s the same injury that cost him time at the end of spring training and last weekend. Washington said Moncada will be re-evaluated.
“He took that swing and felt it again,” Washington said. “Once he said he felt it, I wasn’t taking any chances.”
The Angels can clearly afford to be without Moncada now because Paris continues to sizzle at the plate.
Paris is now hitting .440 with five home runs and an OPS of 1.653 through his first 30 plate appearances of the season. Paris came into the season with a .378 OPS in his first 105 major-league plate appearances.
Paris played center field on Wednesday night, because Jo Adell had the day off. When the Angels bring Adell back, they can move Paris back to second and play Luis Rengifo at third, as they did in the previous three games.
“I put in a lot of hard work, and just want to thank God that it’s all paying off out on the field,” Paris said. “It’s been a lot of fun. Just want to keep winning games.”
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