Angels’ pitching crumbles in 9-5 loss to Twins

Alex Meyer could not believe the call, and even hours later he did not understand it.

He had two strikes and two balls on Joe Mauer with two outs in the second inning Monday night at Target Field. Minnesota had a runner at third and another at first: Byron Buxton, one of baseball’s fastest men. When Meyer threw over, first-base umpire Jeff Nelson called a balk, claiming the pitcher’s left knee buckled before the pickoff attempt, and a run scored.

After Angels manager Mike Scioscia sought and received an explanation, Meyer again set himself and this time delivered a pitch, a fastball he wanted inside that drifted elsewhere. Mauer pounded his mistake for a two-run home run.

“I probably left it over, and I laid a pitch right down the middle,” Meyer said. “They took advantage of that.”

Three runs, on a failed pitch and pickoff. Later, the Twins took advantage of more Meyer wildness and won 9-5.

Initially, the 27-year-old ex-Twin managed to evade ill effects of his signature struggles to find the strike zone. In the first inning, he hit a man and walked another, but spun a perfectly placed slider to strike out Kennys Vargas and end it.

After a double and a walk in the second, shortstop Andrelton Simmons nearly started a double play that would have averted the balking mess, but the throw to first was two ticks late. Mauer struck, and the Twins added a fourth run in the third, when Miguel Sano singled and Max Kepler doubled. Meyer faced Jason Castro with two out and two men in scoring position, when a single would have made the Twins’ lead six.

But in his best moment of the night, Meyer pumped a 97-mph fastball atop the strike zone, Castro checked his swing, and third-base umpire Stu Scheurwater ruled that he went around.

Meyer walked another man in the fourth, surrendered a leadoff homer in the fifth, and exited after that inning, his losing start complete. Yet the poor pitching continued, uncharacteristically out of the bullpen. Relievers Yusmeiro Petit and David Hernandez were no more successful, each permitting two runs.

The long-term concern remains Meyer, who has walked more than six men per nine innings this season. No one in the majors has approached that number over the 601/3 innings Meyer has thrown.

“Obviously, I’m not throwing the ball over the plate enough,” he said.

When he is right, his fastball-slider combination remains enticing, and the Angels’ options remain the opposite. So his opportunity is not about to lapse.

Angels catcher Martin Maldonado believes the control problems stem from a lack of confidence. He compared Meyer to right-hander Jimmy Nelson, a 28-year-old he caught when he was with Milwaukee, who has finally broken out in 2017.

“When he’s on, he’s one of the best pitchers in baseball,” Maldonado said of Meyer. “For him, he’s gotta be a little more confident to know what he can do.”

And, Maldonado said, the Angels must find new ways to remind him of what they think he can become.

“I’ve told him many times. [Pitching coach Charles] Nagy has told him many times. I think even [general manager] Billy Eppler one time said it: He’s one of the nastiest pitchers,” Maldonado said. “It’s nothing we can do. It’s more the way we can talk to him, make him believe in what he’s able to do.

“We’ve gotta find a way to make him believe what kind of guy he can be.”

The Angels (43-44) generated a dozen hits but few rallies. Facing left-hander Adalberto Mejia for the second time in a month, they took only four at-bats with runners in scoring position, and registered one hit: Simmons’ fourth-inning single up the middle that scored their first two runs. Maldonado and first baseman Luis Valbuena notched homers for the rest of their runs.

pedro.moura@latimes.com

Twitter: @pedromoura