Angels can’t decipher Mat Latos in 5-0 loss to White Sox

Andrelton Simmons shook his head in anger as he rose to his feet and picked up his helmet at home plate.

Ron Roenicke, the Angels’ third base coach, waved him home as he rounded third base in Tuesday’s seventh inning, but Simmons slowed for a step to eye Adam Eaton in right field. Eaton’s two-hop throw beat him home by a beat, and Dioner Navarro tagged Simmons out to halt the Angels’ best chance at scoring a run.

It was one of two chances. The Angels summoned only three hits one night after holding their opponents to the same and suffered a 5-0 defeat to the Chicago White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field.

“That run could’ve changed the game,” Simmons said.

Simmons knew it was his fault. He should not have looked back, he said. But, as he stood at second before C.J. Cron singled through to right field, he noticed Chicago’s corner outfielders stationed shallow, and that thought remained in his mind.

The other time the Angels threatened White Sox starter Mat Latos was the first inning. Mike Trout battled him to eight pitches and worked a two-out walk, and Albert Pujols did the same in five pitches. But their hottest hitter, Kole Calhoun, followed with a swinging bunt to first base to end the inning.

Latos did not permit a hit until the fifth inning, when Carlos Perez notched an infield single and stayed at first base. In the seventh, Simmons doubled to extend his hitting streak to 12 games, and Cron singled, but then came the play at the plate. In the eighth and ninth innings, the Angels went down in order.

“Just our whole offense, only a couple of guys are swinging the bat well,” Pujols said. “Besides that, nobody else.”

Latos threw two games as an Angel last September as part of the team’s last-ditch attempt to buttress its pitching staff and qualify for the postseason. It was an unsuccessful audition. He offered better stuff Tuesday night than he did then, but the Angels did not appear particularly impressed.

“I don’t think he was doing anything special,” Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said. “Guys knew what he was going to do. He just did it and we didn’t square it up like we thought we would.”

Said Simmons: “I guess you’ve got to give him a little credit, but we should’ve done better.”

Matt Shoemaker started and pitched competently, although not nearly well enough to outweigh the offensive struggles.

He struck out four White Sox batters and walked one in 61/3 innings. He allowed six hits, four of which were singles. The two others — solo home runs — were his problem.

They each traveled at 107 mph off the bats of Todd Frazier, in the second inning, and Jose Abreu, in the fourth.

“Essentially,” Shoemaker said of the pitches that produced them, “they were both kind of middle-ish.”

The fourth inning was an overall struggle; Shoemaker loaded the bases with one out. But he worked out of it, and, otherwise, he was in control. Left-hander Jose Alvarez struggled in 12/3 innings of relief.

Leading off the eighth, Cliff Pennington popped up a ball to the intersection of the stands and the playing field. White Sox left fielder Melky Cabrera reached into the first row of seats, gloved it, and then dropped it. Fan interference was called.

Scioscia twice visited with home plate umpire Chris Conroy to discuss the ruling, and then challenged. Video replays showed Cabrera was not, in fact, interfered in his pursuit, but the ruling remained.

“I still don’t know why they didn’t reverse that,” Scioscia said afterward. “The ball was dropped before the fan got anywhere near it. He just dropped the ball.”

It was an altogether forgettable night. Twenty-five minutes after the game ended, Calhoun stood up from the dinner table in U.S. Cellular Field’s visiting clubhouse. He took one last sip of his beverage and attempted to throw the plastic bottle into a nearby receptable, only to overshoot it.

“Of course, right?” he said.

pedro.moura@latimes.com

Twitter: @pedromoura