Angels’ walk-off win eases sting of rare three-run blown save for closer Huston Street

It’s rare for Huston Street to blow a save. Since 2012, the Angels closer leads the major leagues with a 92.3% converted-save rate. It’s even more rare for Street to blow a lead of three runs, as the veteran right-hander did in the ninth inning of Saturday night’s 4-3 win over the Cleveland Indians in Angel Stadium.

Street has racked up 321 saves in his distinguished 12-year career. He notched his 50th blown save Saturday night, but it marked only the fourth time in his career that he blew a three-run lead.

Yunel Escobar eased the sting of Street’s shaky outing by hitting a run-scoring single in the bottom of the ninth to give the Angels a walk-off victory and end the team’s five-game losing streak.

“Usually when the team gives me a three-run lead, I get it done,” Street said. “But the main thing is we won. The guy I feel bad for is [starting pitcher] Matt Shoemaker, because that was a dominant outing for him, and he should have won. But when the team wins, it makes it easy to turn the page.”

Shoemaker blanked the Indians on three hits in eight innings, striking out 11 and walking one. The Angels were ahead, 3-0, and Shoemaker’s pitch count stood at 108 after eight innings.

Manager Mike Scioscia pulled Shoemaker, saying he thought the right-hander, who threw more than 108 pitches only once in 12 starts this season, “was at a point where he was going to be at risk.”

Shoemaker felt he could have started the ninth, but he didn’t argue.

“As a competitor, I’m 100%, ‘Oh yeah, I can go back out there,’ ” Shoemaker said. “I don’t want to say I was getting tired, but physically, I was getting a little tired. My pitches were doing different things, and that’s part of the game.

“You get around 100 pitches, your body, your arm starts to get a little tired, whether you feel it or not. That’s why we have managers, to control those things. Of course, I always want to go back out there, but a lot of times, it’s the right decision to put a new guy in there.”

Street, who missed five weeks in late April and May because of a left rib-cage strain, got Jason Kipnis to pop to shortstop for the first out. But Jose Ramirez, Mike Napoli and Carlos Santana all singled on changeups, the third hit scoring a run to cut the lead to 3-1.

Lonnie Chisenhall hit a sacrifice fly to left to make it 3-2, pinch-hitter Francisco Lindor walked and Tyler Naquin hit an RBI single to right for a 3-3 tie. Street, whose earned-run average jumped from 0.82 to 3.09, was pulled in favor of Fernando Salas, who got Yan Gomes to pop to third for the final out.

“He didn’t have his command, and he’s very command sensitive,” Scioscia said of Street. “Some of the changeups he threw were up. He had good life on his fastball, but he couldn’t command counts, and any mistake he made, those guys were on it.”

Asked if Street looks comfortable on the mound, if he looks sound mechanically, Scioscia took a moment to search for the right words.

“Certainly, there are some things he’s struggling with, some release-point issues,” Scioscia said. “I don’t think it’s anything major. When Huston finds it, he finds it for a long time.”

Street said his mechanics and release point felt normal.

“Sometimes you just give up hits,” he said. “Tonight’s game was three changeups that were very poorly located, and all three got hit. You go back to, is the ball breaking earlier? Why is the ball up?

“Tonight was frustrating because I blew the save. … But I’m not going to try to over-analyze it, over-diagnose it, is it the injury? Sometimes it’s just baseball. Sometimes you have three bad outings in a row and then you have three good ones in a row.”