April 20, 2017

Another day in Houston, and another loss where the Angels couldn’t get their bats going.  This time a 2-1 loss to the Astros, which gave Houston 3 victories in the 4 game set.

The Angels were victimized by the long ball in this one.  Carlos Beltran connected on a solo shot off Matt Shoemaker in the 1st inning to give the Astros a 1-0 lead.

Houston would add to that in the 5th when Jake Marisnick took Shoemaker deep to left for another solo homer, and the Astros had a 2-0 lead.

The Halos only run came in the 9th on a home run by Mike Trout.  It was his 4th of the season.

Shoemaker took the loss, his first of the year.  He went 7 innings, giving up just the 2 home runs on 3 hits, while striking out 7 Astros.  He departed after 98 pitches, then turned things over to Bud Norris who pitched a scoreless 8th inning.

However, the Astros pitching was more flawless on this day.  Lance McCullers pitched 6 2/3rd innings, delivering a 3-hit shutout in that stretch.  He improved to 2-0 on the season. 

Chris Devenski pitched the final 2 1/3rd innings to get credit for the save.  He allowed 3 hits, including the Trout homer, but stranded Cliff Pennington and Andrelton Simmons at 2nd and 3rd to end the game.  At one point he struck out 8 of 10 Angels.

The Halos now lead the majors with 25 home runs allowed.  They’ve also dropped 8 of their last 9 games to fall to 7-10 on the season.

The Angel are now headed home to open a 4-game series with the Blue Jays.  It will be Tyler Skaggs (0-1; 5.19 ERA) going for the Halos on Friday, while the Jays will deploy Mat Latos, who was just called up from Triple-A.

April 19, 2017

The Angels took another loss in Houston on Wednesday night, this time by a score of 5-1, and it was their usually stellar defense that let them down.

Dallas Keuchel went 7 strong innings for the Astros, and Josh Reddick had 3 hits including a home run in the victory for Houston.  Reddick drove in 2 runs, scored 3, and finished just a single shy of the cycle.

The Halos started an unusual outfield, which included Jefry Marte in right field, and Cameron Maybin in left.  Marte did not play a single inning in the outfield during spring training, and Maybin has spent little time in right field.  It was evident on Wednesday night.

Reddick was just the second batter of the game, and hit a line drive near Marte, which he missed by a few feet after getting a late break on the ball.  That hit turned into a triple.  Reddick would score shortly after when Jose Altuve singled to right field, on a play where Maybin also got a late break on the ball and couldn’t corral it after sliding.  That gave the Astros a 1-0 lead.

The Angels were fortunate to escape that inning without any further damage.  Altuve stole 2nd, and got to 3rd on a single by Brian McCann.  A wild pitch by Angel starter JC Ramirez got by Martin Maldonado, but the ball bounced off the backstop and back to the the Angel catcher, who tagged out Altuve.

The Angels would tie things up in the 3rd inning, on what would be their only run of the game.  Danny Espinosa doubled, and two batters later, Yunel Escobar singled him in.

Ramirez made his 2nd career start, and was on a roll for the next three innings.  He struck out the side in the 4th, and had 5 straight overall.  However, he ran into trouble in the 5th inning.  Alex Bregman led off with a double and scored on a Yulieski Gurriel single.

In the 6th, Reddick led off with a drive to left field, which gave Marte more trouble.  He tracked it back to the wall but could not glove it, giving Reddick a generous double. Ramirez then retired Altuve, but his night was over after that. Jose Alvarez came in to face McCann. Alvarez retired McCann on a flyout.   Blake Parker would come in next to face Evan Gattis, who ripped a run-scoring single to right.  That made it 3-1.

The Astros delivered the final blow in the bottom of the 7th, when Reddick crushed a 2-run homer to right field off of Mike Morin.  Ramirez ultimately took the loss, falling to 2-2 on the season.

The Angels are now 7-9, and are losers of 7 of their last 8 games.  They’ll try to find the win column during a matinee showdown with Houston on Thursday.  It will be the final game of the four game set.  Matt Shoemaker will be on the mound for the Angels.  He’ll be looking for his first win of the season against Lance McCullers Jr, who is 1-0 on the year.

April 18, 2017

The Angels snapped a 6-game losing skid on Tuesday night against the Astros with a 5-2 victory.  Albert Pujols hit a tie-breaking 3-run homer in the 5th inning to help secure the victory.

Ricky Nolasco pitched 6 strong innings for the Halos, giving up just 2 runs on 8 hits, and striking out 3.  He improved to 1-2 on the season.  Cam Bedrosian pitched the 9th to earn his 3rd save of the season.

The Angels jumped out to a 1-0 lead after Andrelton Simmons hit a solo homer in the 2nd inning off of Astros starter’ Joe Musgrove.  The homer snapped a 21-inning scoreless streak for the Angels.

The Astros came back in the 3rd with a pair of solo homers.  One of them came from Yuli Gurriel and  the other from George Springer.  Those were the only two runs Nolasco allowed in his 103-pitch performance.

Mike Trout put the Angels back in front in the 5th with an RBI double, which made it 3-2.  Pujols was the next batter, and he delivered the decisive blow with homer.

“We have a lot of confidence in our offense,” skipper Mike Scioscia said. “I don’t think anyone was doubting that we would get back on track. But the sooner the better, and we did a good job in the fifth inning.”

Musgrove took the loss, and fell to 1-1 on the season.  He gave up all 5 runs on 8 hits, in 5 innings of work.

“We turned the page on last night and got a win,” Trout said. “You can always look at the negatives, but this team looks at the positives. … It’s a good win. Just go and build on this momentum for tomorrow.”

The Angels will be back at it tomorrow in game 3 of the 4 game set.  JC Ramirez will be on the mound for the Angels, and Dallas Keuchel will go for the Astros.

April 17, 2017

Just when the Angels pitching starts to get a little better, their offense goes into the tank.  The Halos were shutout in Houston on Monday night by a score of 3-0.  It was their 6th straight loss, and the Angels haven’t scored a run in their last 20 innings.

Charlie Morton and three Houston relievers combined to throw a 5-hitter.  Jose Altuve drove in two runs for the Astros as well.

Jesse Chavez pitched 7 innings for the Angels, giving up only two runs on 7 hits, but he took the loss.  Yusmeiro Petit pitched the 8th inning, and gave up Altuve’s RBI double, which extended the lead to 3-0.

Altuve also had a sac fly in the 3rd inning, while Alex Bregman got the Astros on the board in the 1st inning with an RBI single.

In their last twenty innings, the Angels have generated only seven singles. In their last 46 innings, they have mustered two extra-base hits.

“It’s not ideal,” first baseman C.J. Cron said. “We haven’t been hitting like we should, like we know we can.”

The Angels also played without Albert Pujols, who decided, along with Mike Scioscia, that Monday would be a rest day.

“I think we had a bunch of good at-bats, at times, and then a couple that obviously we didn’t get it done in,” Scioscia said. “I thought we hit the ball hard a couple times with guys in scoring position. We worked some counts, had [Morton’s] pitch count up. We just left a lot of guys on base early in the game.”

The Angels and Astros will get back it tomorrow in the second game of the series.  Ricky Nolasco gets the ball for the Halos, and he’ll go up against Mike Fiers.