Angels fall to Orioles, 4-2, as first half of the season comes to a close

The man making his 42nd professional start in the outfield did not know the protocol. When a pop fly and shortstop Andrelton Simmons both aimed his way in Sunday’s sixth inning at Camden Yards, the Angels’ Ji-Man Choi yelled the only thing that made sense to him in the moment: “You got it!”

Simmons let up at the last second, thinking Choi called for it. But Choi was seven feet away, and the baseball plopped onto the outfield grass between them. The man who hit it, Pedro Alvarez, took third on Simmons’ wayward throw back to the infield.

“Next time,” Choi said, “I won’t say anything.”

For the second consecutive game, a menial mistake provided Baltimore the decisive run, and the Angels finished the first half of their 2016 campaign the way they endured it: sloppily. The Orioles overcame them, 4-2, dispatching them into the All-Star break with their 52nd loss of 2016. Only four major league teams have suffered more.

After the blunder, J.J. Hardy whacked Tim Lincecum’s next pitch into center field to score a run and halt Lincecum’s day. The 32-year-old right-hander was hit hard all afternoon, but he managed to subsist until then. He walked two Orioles, struck out four, and yielded nine hits.

Adam Jones ripped a 107-mph single to lead off the game, and took another base when Hyun-Soo Kim grounded softly to second. Manny Machado grounded out to third, and then Mark Trumbo lined a ball in the same direction.

It bounced off Yunel Escobar’s glove back onto the grass, where Simmons picked it up and fired to first base, in time to record the out, in time to save a run. Simmons executed another elite play in the fifth, traveling into the outfield to track down a popup, in no way foreshadowing what would come.

In the second inning, two Orioles shot line drives to right field, but Gregorio Petit, playing second base for Johnny Giavotella, snared both. Lincecum put his arm around Petit as they walked off the field and apologized.

“He had two lasers hit to him,” Lincecum said later, shrugging.

The parade of hard hits continued. Yet, the only casualty came when Chris Davis crushed a 441-foot, two-run home run in the fourth.

Mike Trout doubled in Kole Calhoun for the Angels’ first run, in the first inning. They could not convoke another hit until the fifth, when Petit singled through to left field. The Angels added their other run in the eighth, when Calhoun tripled with help from Trumbo in right field and Albert Pujols drove him in.

The half-inning before, Escobar was ejected while the Angels were on the field, immediately after he drew a depiction of home plate in the infield dirt. He had complained about a strike call during his at-bat in the top of the seventh.

It was Escobar’s third ejection of 2016. Only one other Angel has been so removed: left-hander Hector Santiago. Umpire crew chief Mike Everitt declined to address the ejection after the game. Asked to answer questions from reporters, Escobar declined, as he steadily has for months, and then offered two expletives.

Lincecum and the Angels were both pleased with his pitching. Nearly finishing six innings was a significant step forward.

“That’s the best we’ve seen Tim,” Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said, “and that’s a pretty good lineup that you’ve got to work hard to get through.”

In the days since his most recent start, Tuesday against Tampa Bay, Lincecum made consistent reference to his poor pitching since he debuted as an Angel last month. He was embarrassed to fail to finish five innings in three straight starts. This time, he said, he used his fastball more, threw it a bit harder, and finally felt confident with it for an entire start.

On Sunday morning, Lincecum hopped around the visiting clubhouse at Camden Yards, watching his teammates play cards, finishing his fourth one-liter bottle of water to hydrate for the humid conditions, and mouthing along to Third Eye Blind’s 1990s anthem, “How’s It Gonna Be?”

“I’m only pretty sure that I can’t take anymore,” the song begins. “Before you take a swing/I wonder, what are we fighting for?”

pedro.moura@latimes.com