Brewers take extreme measures, hitting three long homers to rally past Angels 5-4

The Angels squandered their best chances by hitting into double plays Tuesday night at Miller Park, but that was not the primary culprit in another defeat to lowly Milwaukee, according to their manager, Mike Scioscia.

Responsibility for the 5-4 loss instead was pinned on the 1,272 feet of home runs given up by the Angels’ starter, young right-hander Nick Tropeano.

“We didn’t lose this game in the batter’s box tonight,” Scioscia said.

The game marked the first major league start of Junior Guerra’s career. As recently as two years ago, the 31-year-old Brewers right-hander was pitching in the Italian Baseball League, scouring the world for opportunities to play baseball for money. A native of Venezuela, he has pitched in Hawaii, Mexico and, annually, in his homeland.

At no point did he mystify the Angels. But he kept the ball in the ballpark, and issued only one walk.

“I thought early on, we got some pretty good looks,” Scioscia said.

Rafael Ortega bunted for a hit in the first inning, and moved to second when Mike Trout grounded out. Albert Pujols took hold of a subsequent slider, and acted as if he had hit it out, running lightly to first base. When the ball bounced off the right-field wall, Pujols accelerated but was thrown out at second, one second after Ortega scored.

The Angels’ remaining runs reached home in the third inning. Cliff Pennington walked, Yunel Escobar singled and Ortega ripped a run-scoring single up the middle. After Guerra balked the baserunners to second and third, he had Trout cornered, 0-2, and threw a good slider on the inner third of the plate.

Despite being jammed, Trout managed to shoot the ball out to right field for a two-run single that gave the Angels a 4-0 lead. Next up, Pujols grounded a 3-0 fastball to third base, and the Brewers turned it into two outs.

The Angels hit into two more double plays on the night, increasing their 2016 total to a major league-high 31. Scioscia said after the game he was not at all concerned about that.

“We put the ball in play,” he said. “I think that’s much more of an asset than it is a detriment to what we need to do.”

The quagmire in left field is emblematic of the roster’s issues as a whole. Thirty days into the season, five men at the position have combined to walk nearly as often as they’ve struck out, but they have only one extra-base hit, a double.

Tropeano yielded a single to the second man he faced, Jonathan Villar, who stole second base, and a walk to the third hitter, Jonathan Lucroy. He escaped that trouble and stayed unscathed until the third inning, when Chris Carter launched a 439-foot home run to straightaway center field on a first-pitch fastball, a two-run shot that cut the Angels’ lead in half.

In the fifth, Tropeano yielded a 402-foot, two-run home run to Lucroy, to left, on a changeup that missed up. In a 1-2 count, he had been searching for a strikeout.

“I should’ve buried it,” he said.

Then, two pitches later, Carter hit another ball deep to straightaway center, 431 feet from home plate, that decided the outcome.

“It was just a get-me-over slider,” Tropeano said. “I probably should have been more aggressive with it.”

That was a night-long problem, as Tropeano tiptoed his way through an undistinguished Brewers lineup that was sans Ryan Braun. He walked five of their hitters.

“Obviously, he had trouble getting the ball over the plate and into good zones,” Scioscia said. “He had a four-run lead and he ends up walking five guys. That shows you he was off. It was not by design.”

Trailing 5-4 in the seventh, the Angels loaded the bases without no outs. But Cliff Pennington popped out to short right field, not deep enough for a sacrifice fly. Domingo Santana, the Brewers right fielder, threw home anyway, and errantly. But the ball ricocheted off the backstop and back to Lucroy, the catcher, so quickly that Andrelton Simmons had to stay at third base.

Yunel Escobar quickly bounced into a double play, and the Angels’ chance was over. They did not generate any more.

Follow Pedro Moura on Twitter @pedromoura