Angels fall to Detroit, 9-4, with a ‘creative’ lineup
Reporting from Detroit — It’s going to be all about staying power for Trevor Bell and the Angels over the season’s final eight weeks.
They didn’t have enough Sunday at Comerica Park, and it cost them during an uglier-by-the-minute 9-4 loss to the Detroit Tigers.
Bell completed four steady innings before wobbling in the fifth and sixth.
Reliever Scot Shields pitched a scoreless seventh before imploding in a three-run eighth.
And a lineup that Manager Mike Scioscia dubbed “creative” because it featured a featherweight hitter in a heavyweight spot produced an early lead but failed to deliver a knockout, going two for 11 with runners in scoring position.
It all added up to the fourth loss in six games on the trip, hardly the postseason push the Angels were hoping to make as they try to accelerate a lethargic pursuit of Texas in the American League West.
With center fielder Torii Hunter already unavailable because he was serving the second game of a four-game suspension, Scioscia gave sluggers Mike Napoli and Hideki Matsui the day off while using light-hitting Maicer Izturis (three home runs, 25 runs batted in) in the cleanup spot.
The lineup produced 10 hits, including a triple by Izturis and double by Peter Bourjos that accounted for their only extra-base hits.
“It was obviously a small-ball lineup and sometime necessity is the mother of invention,” Scioscia said.
The Angels handed Bell a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning when Alberto Callaspo reached on an error, advanced to third base on Izturis’ single to right field and scored on a wild pitch.
But Bell (1-3) unraveled in the fifth and sixth innings, giving up seven of the nine hits and all six runs he surrendered. The right-hander said that he was having trouble maintaining his focus once things started to go wrong.
“I think it’s just getting out of the big inning is my problem right now,” said Bell, who had faced only two batters over the minimum in the first four innings. “A couple of things happen and it gets to my head too much. It’s kind of a dumb rookie thing.”
Bell yielded two-out, run-scoring doubles to Will Rhymes and Johnny Damon during a fifth inning in which a throwing error by third baseman Callaspo contributed to the Tigers’ three-run outburst.
An inning later, Bell walked Brandon Inge to load the bases with one out before giving up Alex Avila’s two-run single past diving second baseman Izturis. Rhymes’ run-scoring ingle against reliever Michael Kohn gave Detroit a 6-3 lead.
The Angels had four hits and scored two runs in the sixth inning but might have inflicted considerably more damage had they not made two outs on the bases.
Izturis tripled past diving right fielder Brennan Boesch and scored on Juan Rivera’s single to center field, but Rivera was thrown out trying to go from first base to third on Reggie Willits’ flare single to left field.
“He’s running on the pitch and I don’t think he realized how closely the left fielder was pinching,” Scioscia said of Rivera, “and as he made his turn he just misread it.”
Willits advanced to second base when Rivera was tagged out and scored on Jeff Mathis’ single to center field, but Mathis was tagged out after venturing around first base to ensure Willits made it home without a throw.
The Angels cut the deficit to 6-4 in the seventh inning when Bourjos doubled down the left-field line, raced to third base when left fielder Ryan Raburn bobbled the ball and scored on Bobby Abreu’s groundout.
But Shields walked the bases loaded before giving up three runs in the eighth inning, erasing any hope of an Angels comeback.
ben.bolch@latimes.com
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