Angels’ offense can’t match up with Rays in 10-3 loss
Mickey Hatcher has tried everything short of bringing in a psychic to help the Angels’ hitters find their stroke.
The way things are going, that might be next.
The Angels’ hitting coach and his disciples have taken instructional sessions out of the batting cage and onto the field. They have visualized hitting singles to take away the temptation to overswing. Some days, they will talk about anything but baseball.
None of it has revived a slumbering offense that continued to snooze Tuesday night at Angel Stadium during a 10-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.
“It’s very frustrating,” Hatcher said before the game. “I’m here to make a difference and I’m beating my head to the wall.”
The beatdowns go on for an Angels offense that stranded 12 runners and went one for 14 with runners in scoring position, lowering the team’s average to .144 (17 for 118) in that situation over its last 15 games.
Last season, the Angels set a franchise record and led the major leagues with a .297 average with runners in scoring position.
The offense wasn’t entirely culpable for the Angels’ seventh loss in nine games. Ervin Santana yielded six runs in 51/3 innings, closer Brian Fuentes wobbled during a three-run ninth inning and shortstop Erick Aybar failed to keep track of the number of outs in the second inning, leading to a run on a pop fly.
“We’re definitely not bringing the level of play on the field that we should,” Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said. “We’re going to see what these guys are made of because our backs are against the wall now.”
Angels left fielder Bobby Abreu motioned to Aybar that the speedy B.J. Upton was tagging up after Aybar had caught Ben Zobrist’s second-inning popup with his back to home plate. But by the time Aybar whirled and threw home, Upton scored easily.
The Angels also failed to cover third base on the play, allowing John Jaso to tag up and advance to third. Jaso’s two-run single off the mound earlier in the inning had keyed the Rays’ four-run outburst that provided a seemingly insurmountable 4-0 lead.
Evan Longoria and Matt Joyce added solo homers off Santana (13-9), who had won five of his previous six starts.
The Angels fell 10 games behind Texas in the American League West, matching their largest deficit of the season.
Howie Kendrick homered and Hideki Matsui had three hits, including a run-scoring double, to extend his season-high hitting streak to nine games.
But it wasn’t nearly enough on a night the Angels put a leadoff man on in six innings and brought him home only twice. They also left the bases loaded in the ninth inning and stranded two runners in the third, fourth and eighth innings against Tampa starter Wade Davis and four relievers.
“Hopefully, we can calm ourselves down and go out there and get it done,” Angels right fielder Torii Hunter said. “I don’t have any more excuses. I’m out of them.”
Fuentes, called upon with his team trailing by four runs in the ninth inning, made it a seven-run deficit when he yielded Carl Crawford’s two-run double and Joyce’s sacrifice fly. They were the first runs Fuentes had given up since July 27 against Boston, ending a seven-inning scoreless streak.
“I just wasn’t throwing strikes,” Fuentes, who walked a pair of batters in the inning and drew mock applause from the crowd when he threw a strike to Joyce on a 3-and-0 count.
ben.bolch@latimes.com
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