Angels bats unable to solve Blue Jays pitching
· Yahoo Sports
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Runs were easy to come by for the Angels over their recent road trip. Now, not so much.
Since returning from a successful seven-game road trip that saw the Angels average over seven runs a game and putting up eight runs in the first home game back, the Angels have now scored just four runs in their last three games.
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That includes their 5-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday night when the Angels struck out 18 times.
Over the last three games, the Angels (11-13) have struck out 39 times while collecting only 14 hits.
“You could just say that’s baseball,” manager Kurt Suzuki said. “You could say we got cold. I really think the pitching that we faced, (Dylan) Cease tonight and then those three guys that came before (Jeff) Hoffman, (Louis) Varland and (Tyler) Rogers and (Braydon) Fisher, you looked up and those guys had ERAs under one. So, they've been pretty good all year. So, definitely a tough, tough assignment tonight.”
Heading into the road trip on April 9, the Angels’ 29.2% strikeout rate ranked worst in the majors. Over the eight-game stretch that included the road trip and the first game back, their strikeout rate was 17.2%, which was the second-best in baseball in that span.
The Angels opened the scoring in the first inning when first baseman Nolan Schanuel’s two-out double down the left field line was followed by an RBI two-strike single by designated hitter Jorge Soler.
In the third, shortstop Zach Neto led off the inning with a walk and center fielder Mike Trout followed with a single. Neto and Trout then executed a double steal to set up Schanuel for a sacrifice fly on the eighth pitch of the at-bat.
After the fifth inning, the Angels failed to reach scoring position the rest of the game.
Blue Jays right-hander Dylan Cease racked up 12 strikeouts in five innings against the Angels.
“I thought his stuff was pretty darn electric,” Suzuki said. “You know, 99 (mph) and a couple breaking balls and a good changeup.”
Left-hander Reid Detmers grinded through his outing today, giving up four earned runs in six innings pitched with five strikeouts and two walks.
“My body felt good,” Detmers said. “Kind of grinded the first couple of innings, but then I figured out going into the fourth. I mean, it is what it is. Stuff felt good after the fourth inning. Made a couple mistakes, but that's baseball.”
Detmers’ first mistake came in the third inning, when he left a changeup over the heart of the plate for Blue Jays first baseman Vadimir Guerrero Jr., who blasted it over the bushes in center field for a two-run home run.
The next mistake came in the sixth inning, when Detmers threw an 0-2 curveball that caught too much of the plate and Blue Jays second baseman Lenyn Sosa got enough of it to hit a sacrifice fly to take a 3-2 lead.
“I was kicking myself after that one,” Detmers said. “I should have thrown a slider. Walking off the mound, I was pretty mad at myself for not throwing a slider, but you live and you learn.”
Command was another issue for Detmers at times throughout the night, specifically his fastball. His fastball found the zone only 34% of the time, but he still had a 55% strike rate with it because he got hitters to chase out of the zone.
“You just got to trust it,” Detmers said. “You've got to trust the process. It's not always going to be there. But fortunately, my offspeed pitches were good enough at the time, so I could kind of rely on them while the fastball wasn't there. And then the fastball started to come back in the fifth and sixth.”
The Blue Jays added on in the eighth when right-fielder Myles Straw led off with a walk and then scored on a single by pinch-hitter Nathan Lukes. In the ninth, the Blue Jays scored again when Straw led off with a single, then reached second on a passed ball by catcher Logan O’Hoppe, then reached third by a sacrifice bunt by catcher Tyler Heineman and scored on a ground out by Lukes.
The passed ball that led to the Blue Jays’ insurance run added onto what was a rough night for O’Hoppe, who also went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts in the game.
The Angels will look to even the series on Tuesday night with right-hander Jack Kochanowicz on the mound.