ANAHEIM — Hundreds of fans came to Angel Stadium on Wednesday night wearing white gowns and halos, creating a raucous environment beyond the right field fence.
Energized by a three-game winning streak and cheering every positive moment at the beginning of the game, the fans were chanting “sell the team” by the eighth inning of a 6-3 loss to the Texas Rangers.
It’s the mantra for fans frustrated by the 10-year playoff drought under the ownership of Arte Moreno.
Down by a run in the eighth, the Angels let the game get away when left-hander Reid Detmers gave up a two-run homer to Adolis Garcia and then right-hander Sam Bachman couldn’t retire any of the four hitters he faced. The Rangers scored four runs.
The Angels (53-56) remained four games out of the third American League wild card spot.
They’ll get to the trade deadline on Thursday (3 p.m. PT) with about a 5% chance of making the playoffs, according to FanGraphs. They dealt for two relievers on Wednesday, but it remains to be seen how active they’ll be – and in which direction – on Thursday.
Their last performance before the deadline certainly couldn’t have given General Manager Perry Minasian much encouragement to push for a playoff spot this year.
Up until the eighth-inning meltdown, it was a pitchers’ duel between Angels right-hander José Soriano and Rangers right-hander Nathan Eovaldi.
After a midseason hiccup, Soriano has settled into a rhythm, with a 2.16 ERA over his last four starts. He gave up five runs in one of those games, but four were unearned. In that span he’s struck out 20 in 25 innings, and walked eight.
Soriano gave up one earned run in seven innings on Wednesday, pitching under some stress throughout.
“Sori did a great job of doing what we’ve been seeing from him in flashes,” interim manager Ray Montgomery said. “And then to match up against that guy and taking seven innings like he did was great.”
The leadoff hitter reached base in four of the seven innings that he started. The Rangers had a runner at third with less than two outs in the second and fifth innings, both times recording a strikeout to help him escape.
“He was great,” catcher Logan O’Hoppe said. “He was really good. He threw his secondary pitches for strikes. The sinker was really good. He had command to both sides, which is something that’s been spotty for him, but he had really good control of it tonight. I was pretty impressed.”
The unearned run that Soriano allowed in the sixth was the reason he was trailing, 2-1, when he left.
Center fielder Jo Adell made an error on a Corey Seager line drive hit directly at him leading off the sixth. Seager came around to score on a wild pitch and a Marcus Semien single.
The Angels could do little against Eovaldi, despite a bases-loaded one-out opportunity in the third. Mike Trout struck out and then Nolan Schanuel hit a line drive to right field.
Luis Rengifo drove in the only run in seven innings against Eovaldi.
“That guy doesn’t throw a thing in the middle of the plate,” O’Hoppe said. “It’s a tough at bat. You’ve got to earn your pitches, and we got him at his best, I think, tonight.”
By the time the Angels scored again, on Schanuel’s two-run homer in the eighth, they had already fallen behind by five runs.
Detmers, who has been the Angels’ best reliever for most of the past three months, started the eighth even though the Angels were down by a run. It was perhaps a sign of how important Montgomery viewed the final game before the trade deadline.
Detmers had no trouble retiring the first two hitters. He then gave up a single to Semien and a homer to Garcia, who hit a curveball that was about a foot off the ground.
That turned the positive energy from the fans in right field into negative energy, but after the game O’Hoppe was nonetheless grateful for what they brought earlier in the game.
“It was awesome to have some support and just know that they’re in it with us,” O’Hoppe said. “It was really freaking cool. I don’t want that to get overlooked tonight. It was pretty awesome.”