Lackey is rocked as Angels lose to the Rays

If this year’s Angels don’t seem reminiscent of the team that rolled to four division titles in the last five seasons, you’re not the only one who feels that way.

“It’s a little different these days,” pitcher John Lackey said Wednesday after another in a string of inconsistent efforts ended in a 9-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.

How so?

“I can’t really say that publicly,” he answered. “It’s gotten a little different every year.”

And how.

On June 11 last year, the Angels were 14 games over .500 and had the best record in the American League.

Today they are only a game over .500 at 29-28 with the second-best record in their division.

At this time a year ago, the Angels were coming off a seven-game winning streak and had won at least three in a row seven times.

This year’s team has won consecutive games just twice in the last 19 days.

But the biggest difference between this year and last isn’t so much how often the Angels are losing as it is how they’re losing. A runner was thrown out at the plate Wednesday and another was picked off third. They gave up one run on a wild pitch, another when a throw to the plate was cut off and a third on an error.

And the game nearly ended with Vladimir Guerrero trying to stretch a double into a triple with his team trailing by four runs.

“We’ve just got to keep pounding the fundamentals and hope we clean these up and play at a higher level,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “There have been some things we’re searching for. Certainly some things have to come together for us to be that club that we have the potential to be.

“Until that happens, you’re going to have some games that slip through the cracks.”

Wednesday’s game didn’t slip through a crack. It fell into a canyon, with the Rays wiping out a 3-0 Angels lead by sending 16 batters to the plate against Lackey -- scoring seven of them -- in the second and third innings.

Imagine how bad it would have been if Lackey didn’t have his good stuff.

“His stuff looked very crisp,” Scioscia insisted.

And to be fair, two of the Rays’ singles were broken-bat hits while Gabe Gross’ second-inning run-scoring double came on a ground ball just inside the first-base line.

“Everything that could happen wrong happened,” Lackey said. “The good pitches they were managing to get infield hits. And then when I threw a bad pitch, they were hitting those hard.”

Two of those hard hits landed well back in bleachers, with Carlos Pena hitting a home run to left field in the fifth inning and Willy Aybar to right in the fifth.

“You can’t steer ‘em once you let it go,” said Lackey, who gave up eight earned runs and 11 hits in five innings.

The question now is can the Angels steer themselves back into contention? “If you’re going to put together a streak you have to play well. And to play well you have to be a good team,” Scioscia said. “We’re trying to grow into that club.”

Sounds like a definite maybe. But then Lackey wasn’t much more reassuring.

“I could pitch better. That would help,” said the right-hander, who is 1-2 with a 6.61 earned-run average in six starts since returning from the disabled list.

“I’m not going to single anybody else out until I handle my business. [But] there’s a lot of time left. It’s definitely possible.”

Possible?

“That’s as far as I’m going, man.”

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kevin.baxter@latimes.com