Matt Shoemaker’s win attempts continue to be thwarted by Angels

Perhaps there is nothing else Matt Shoemaker can do. Perhaps his fate is predestined.

Because, for the sixth time this month Monday night at Angel Stadium, the Angels right-hander turned in a dominant performance, and for the sixth time this month, he left the ballpark without a win.

He shut the Houston Astros down for six scoreless innings, and then the Angels bullpen blew a two-run lead. The Angels lost, 4-2, wasting a great performance from Shoemaker and an even better one from Mike Trout, who connected on his third consecutive three-hit game.

“Our team has to be more than Mike,” Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said.

Trout said Monday afternoon he remained unsure about whether he would participate in next month’s home run derby. Monday night, he launched an improbable home run, following a 1-and-2 curveball from Collin McHugh well below the strike zone and golfing it beyond the left-field fence for the game’s first run.

“When you throw a curveball to Trout, you know you’ve got to bounce it,” McHugh said. “So I was trying to bounce it. I think it would have bounced.”

Shoemaker handled the early innings without issue. He appeared to let up in the sixth, when he allowed a 383-foot shot to Houston’s Luis Valbuena. Bouncing off the top of the wall, right at the defining yellow line, the ball was initially ruled a home run but altered to a double after a review.

Then the Angels right-hander took advantage of the grace he was given. He got Jose Altuve to pop up, then struck out Colby Rasmus after hitting Carlos Correa with a fastball. Needing an additional out, Shoemaker set up Astros rookie A.J. Reed with fastballs and then fed him a splitter to strike him out.

Shoemaker struck out six men, all on splitters. In his last eight starts, a span in which he owns a 1.87 earned-run average, he has struck out 68 men and walked five.

“Matt is on an incredible run,” Scioscia said. “He pitched a great game tonight.”

Shoemaker maintained he was unconcerned about the undesirable result. He is focused on only one thing, he has said after every recent start, including this time: posting scoreless inning after scoreless inning. Zeroes, he calls them.

“Over the long run, if you do that, the team’s gonna win a lot,” he said.

In the bottom of the sixth, Trout blooped a ball to short right field and had three bases available. He tripped turning around second and fell face-first, forcing him to turn back and eliciting loud groans from the crowd. When he reached second, Trout grabbed Altuve’s head as they shared a laugh.

On Saturday, Altuve cost himself a cycle by tripping in the same fashion. While the two teams stretched Monday, Trout found the diminutive second baseman to poke fun at him. And then, three hours later, he himself fell.

“It was kind of some karma involved,” Trout said.

He still scored two batters later, when C.J. Cron shot a single to left field. The Angels advanced two more runners into scoring position that inning but got neither home.

In the seventh, after Shoemaker exited, Mike Morin yielded consecutive singles to Carlos Gomez and Evan Gattis. After Jason Castro struck out, George Springer grounded a ball up the middle. Andrelton Simmons ranged 20 feet to snare it with his right hand and deliver a throw in time for Springer to be out by half a step. Still, a run scored.

Scioscia let Morin face one more batter. When he walked him, Deolis Guerra entered and promptly permitted a sharp, run-scoring single to Altuve.

In the ninth, Fernando Salas loaded the bases without an out and then permitted a go-ahead sacrifice fly. Scioscia called his wild performance “very uncharacteristic.” Salas was tired; he had recorded the last out of the eighth after pitching Sunday. But closer Huston Street and fellow reliever Cam Bedrosian were both unavailable.

Salas and Morin now figure to be the same Tuesday. After Scioscia removed Salas, newcomer J.C. Ramirez entered and fired a wild pitch, and Houston’s fourth run came forth.

The Angels could not score more, although they loaded the bases to lead off the ninth inning. Catcher Jett Bandy struck out swinging and Simmons grounded into his ninth double play of 2016.

They were again without third baseman Yunel Escobar, who has sat since Thursday due to a bone bruise in his left knee. Scioscia said Escobar could return to the lineup Tuesday.

pedro.moura@latimes.com

Twitter: @pedromoura