Garrett Richards puts Angels in early hole during 3-1 loss to Yankees

Pitching on his 30th birthday, Garrett Richards probably wanted to go back to being 29 again and start the day all over.

Unable to make it through three innings Sunday, the right-hander put the Angels in an early deficit from which they were unable to emerge as the offense fell silent again, losing 3-1 to New York.

“I don’t know,” Richards said. “I don’t really have anything to say about today. … Obviously, I got to be better than that.”

The Angels lost their first road series of 2018 and will finish the regular season 1-5 against the Yankees.

They began Sunday coming off a stirring victory highlighted by one of the finest nights in the very fine career of Mike Trout.

But the mood changed as quickly as the weather from one day to the next, the first-pitch temperature 24 degrees cooler Sunday than the night before.

Richards needed 27 pitches to grind through the first inning and 24 to make it through the second. He did enough to keep the game scoreless.

Only then did things really go haywire. After a leadoff single and a strikeout, Richards walked the next three batters, and the last three, he faced.

He threw two wild pitches during the sequence, giving him three in the game and bringing his season total to 14, the most in the majors.

“This team covers a lot of the plate,” he said. “You can’t make mistakes. Maybe it was a combination of trying to be too fine and me not being exactly 100% comfortable.”

Twelve of Richards’ final 14 pitches missed the strike zone, manager Mike Scioscia pulling him after a walk to Aaron Hicks forced in a run.

Jose Alvarez relieved and the Yankees scored two runs that were charged to Richards, the most unwelcome of birthday and parting gifts.

“He wasn’t comfortable out there,” Scioscia said. “Just a bad day for G.”

It all added up to an odd day when the winning team finished with only five hits, all singles, but had the benefit of six walks and a hit batter.

Richards’ big league debut came at Yankee Stadium in August 2011. Since then, not much has gone right for him against the Yankees.

He is 0-5 with an 8.41 earned-run average in seven games and six starts against New York. No opponent has battered Richards for a higher ERA.

The right-hander has started twice against the Yankees this season and retired 12 hitters, the same number of Yankee hitters who have scored against him.

Four of the runs Richards gave up to New York at Angel Stadium last month were unearned, but this clearly is an opponent he has been unable to solve.

“For whatever season, I just don’t pitch well against them,” Richards said. “Make some adjustments, get ready for the next one. … Hopefully, we see them down the road in the playoffs.”

That could happen only if the Angels avoid the sort of offensive fog they’ve been wandering through too often of late.

A day after Trout set career highs in hits, extra-base hits and total bases, their notable offense was limited to a single swing — Andrelton Simmons’ home run in the sixth inning.

Trout had 11 total bases Saturday. All the Angels, including Trout, had seven Sunday.

With Justin Upton (forearm contusion) out and Albert Pujols given the day off, the Angels started a rather limp lineup.

The bottom half featured Luis Valbuena, who was hitless in 17 at-bats; Ian Kinsler, who was one for 19 on the trip; Kole Calhoun, who was batting .157; and Chris Young, who was eight of 53 in May.

Those four combined to go zero for 12 with one walk against Masahiro Tanaka and three relievers.

The Angels’ most legitimate threat came in the fourth inning when the first two batters reached before Valbuena struck out and Kinsler hit into a double play.

Valbuena’s hitless steak is at 20 at-bats, 13 of which have been strikeouts.

“Just trying to find that timing,” Scioscia said, “find that rhythm.”

Several of Valbuena’s teammates can relate.

jeff.miller@latimes.com