Angels fall apart in 9-2 loss to the White Sox

Reporting from Chicago — An uncharacteristic error by center fielder Torii Hunter could be forgiven.

Another subpar outing by Scott Kazmir could be overlooked.

More ineptitude from a struggling offense could be expected.

Yet, there was no spin that could account for what happened to the Angels in the fourth inning of their 9-2 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Monday at U.S. Cellular Field.

After White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko struck out and Carlos Quentin walked, Andruw Jones grounded into a double play. Inning over. Except the Angels, having lost track of the outs, remained on the field.

For nearly a minute.

“I thought maybe Konerko struck out the inning before,” Hunter said, sitting at his locker and staring straight ahead. “We were all in a daze and we’re all tired, and we looked like it. We looked bad today.”

Hunter said the Angels “were sleepwalking” after their charter flight landed in the early-morning hours Monday. Kazmir, who had flown to Chicago ahead of the team, appeared to be the only Angel to realize he had secured the final out of the fourth inning.

“We seemed a little groggy,” Kazmir said.

But it was Kazmir’s inability to get two key outs in the sixth and seventh innings that resulted in another ugly pitching line: six hits and seven runs in 6 1/3 innings, with five walks and three strikeouts.

Kazmir was one out from escaping the sixth inning unscathed when Konerko hit a run-scoring single to left field and Quentin followed with the first of his two home runs, a two-run shot that gave the White Sox a 5-1 lead.

“It’s frustrating because I felt I worked so hard to get to that point and then it just unravels,” said Kazmir, who has lost his last three starts, has a 10.43 earned-run average in those games and averaged less than five innings per outing.

Manager Mike Scioscia said Kazmir’s longest start in nearly a month actually qualified as a step forward, with the left-hander incorporating more quality sliders into his repertoire.

“Some things moved forward in a big way,” Scioscia said. “We’ll see if now we can marry the whole package and he can pitch deep” into a game.

Hunter made his first error since Sept. 18, in the fifth inning, when he and second baseman Howie Kendrick converged on Dayan Viciedo’s shallow fly ball only to have it nick off his glove.

“I called [Kendrick] off and I didn’t think he was going to stop,” Hunter said, “so I took my eye off the ball a little early and I saw him in my peripheral vision. It was terrible.”

So was the Angels’ offense. A piecemeal lineup that included three players — first baseman Paul McAnulty, right fielder Cory Aldridge and third baseman Kevin Frandsen — who were off the team’s radar when the season started generated only six hits and was one for eight with runners in scoring position.

And so a team that will fly a major league-leading 50,509 miles this season retreated to its hotel, vowing to do better after playing as if it had left its ability to execute baseball basics on the tarmac in Southern California.

“It catches up to you at some point,” Kendrick said of the travel. “It is tough to come back in after you got in at 4 in the morning and play. … We have to come back tomorrow and try to right things.”

ben.bolch@latimes.com