Angels back at .500 after ninth-inning rally fizzles vs. Mariners
Despite a home run from outfielder Randal Grichuk and a ninth-inning RBI ground-rule double from Brandon Drury, the Angels fell to the Seattle Mariners 3-2 on Saturday night for their fifth consecutive loss.
The Angels mounted a two-out rally in the ninth, with C.J. Cron drawing a walk and Mike Moustakas singling before Drury’s ground-rule double to left field. Drury drove in Cron and almost certainly would have scored pinch-runner Andrew Velazquez had it not bounced over the wall, halting Velazquez at third. Seattle reliever Andrés Muñoz then struck out Hunter Renfroe to end the game.
The Angels (56-56) dropped to six games out of the American League wild-card race and are 9½ games behind the first-place Texas Rangers in the AL West.
The Angels entered Saturday’s game on a four-game losing streak after their starting pitchers failed to get through five innings in the last three games.
After a two-run double by Mariners All-Star Julio Rodríguez in the third, Grichuk crushed a home run in the bottom of the inning to give the Angels some momentum. Grichuk, acquired by the Angels ahead of the trade deadline, went one for three.
Left-hander Tyler Anderson (5-3) gave up two runs and two hits while walking three and striking out six over five innings. He is the first Angels starter to reach the fifth inning in the last four games.
“I felt good, I would’ve loved to stay in there,” said Anderson, who added he was trying to give the overworked bullpen a break.
Angels manager Phil Nevin opted to pull Anderson before he had to face Rodríguez again.
“I know what Julio does his third time around, especially [against] left-handers,” Nevin said. “I mean, I didn’t expect Tyler to like it at all. Felt that was the best way for us to win the game is to make sure we stop them for the next two, three and just get one more run.”
Reliever Dominic Leone and closer Aaron Loup combined to pitch three scoreless innings. However, Ty France padded the Mariners’ lead with an RBI single off José Soriano in the eighth to make it 3-1.
Shohei Ohtani went hitless in four at-bats. He continues to lead the majors in on-base-plus-slugging-percentage (1.086) for an Angels squad that is 4-5 against the Mariners (59-52) this season.
Shohei Ohtani believes the Angels need him too much to take days off. The Angels don’t disagree and are trusting him to manage his fatigue.
Nevin said “it’s a tough room to be in right now,” amid the team’s five-game losing streak.
“I feel like there’s a lot of games left,” Anderson said. “Everyone’s talking right now like it’s the end of the season, but there’s a pretty significant amount of games left. And you know, we’re one good streak away from being right in the middle of things right here.
“We just know the games are going to be tight from here on out and just, you know, play clean baseball and give ourselves a chance.”
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