ANAHEIM — The encouraging signs from the Angels last week have now vanished in a miserable stretch of games.
The Angels lost, 8-1, to the Boston Red Sox on Saturday night, dropping their fifth straight game and falling a season-high 18 games under .500.
The Angels (36-54) had played over .500 for more than a month until this week’s three losses against the Seattle Mariners and two to the Red Sox. They have one more game against Boston on Sunday.
The offense has managed a collective .185 average with a .490 OPS during the losing streak. They’ve scored eight runs. Their only run against Boston starter Sonny Gray on Saturday was Josh Lowe’s second-inning homer. The Angels had only four hits.
“Sometimes really there’s nothing much you can do, you know?” manager Kurt Suzuki said. “We faced a guy last night (Jake Bennett), he had a (3.10 ERA). Sonny tonight, sub-3. You just got to go out there with a plan and get a good pitch to hit and not miss it. And sometimes you’re not going to get a good pitch. You’re just going to have to battle it out and you can’t look at the results so much sometimes. It’s the other pitchers pitching well. But I felt the guys had a plan out there and sometimes you just got to tip your hat. He executed his pitches. When we did get a pitch to hit, J-Lo smashed that one homer. He pitched a great game.”
It didn’t help that the Angels hitters had to deal with a three-run deficit before their first at-bat of the game.
Angels starter Sam Aldegheri put them in that hole with another poor start.
Bad first innings have bitten Aldegheri a few times. On May 5, he walked two and gave up two hits in the first inning, and then he didn’t give up anything else through four. On June 12, he walked and allowed a hit in the first, before settling down.
This time, Aldegheri walked two of the first three hitters. He then fell behind Boston cleanup hitter Willson Contreras, and he dumped a 2-and-1 fastball over the middle of the plate. Contreras drilled a three-run homer.
He would have allowed a second homer if not for Jo Adell’s leaping catch at the right-field fence.
“I think tomorrow I’ll go through it with our pitching coach, through my routine, because I’ve noticed that every time I’m struggling in the first,” Aldegheri said. “Maybe I just need to make some adjustment in the routine.”
After that, Aldegheri tacked on three scoreless, hitless innings. He still walked two more hitters, though. He was at 88 pitches after four, ending his night.
Aldegheri has now started six times for the Angels, with a 5.08 ERA over his nine games. He’s walked 17 batters in 33⅔ innings.
Aldegheri struggled at a time when right-hander Grayson Rodriguez is getting closer to a return to the rotation. Rodriguez, who is out with back inflammation, gave up one run in 5⅓ innings in his second rehab start on Saturday night.
The Angels were only down 3-1 when Aldegheri left the game, but things got away with left-hander Samy Natera Jr. on the mound.
Natera had given up just one run in his first nine games, but he gave up four on Saturday night. Natera gave up three hits, including a homer, and he walked one and hit one.
“It’s tough when you’re pitching behind (in the count),” Suzuki said. “Samy’s been pitching great since he’s been up here. You don’t expect him to be perfect every time. It’s a good learning experience for him. Learn from it and move forward.”
Relievers Ryan Zeferjahn, Chase Silseth and Brent Suter held the Red Sox to one run the rest of the way, but the hitters didn’t even threaten to get back in the game. The Angels had only one hit after they fell behind, 7-1, and they did not get a runner into scoring position.
