ANAHEIM — The first series sweep of the season remained out of reach for the Angels, who pulled off feats of daring and strength in the early going before fading into the night.
Once holding a four-run lead, the Angels let it all slip away in an 8-5 defeat after the Toronto Blue Jays loaded the bases four different times in a four-run sixth inning.
Fresh off of late game-winning rallies with six runs in the eighth inning on Tuesday and three more in the ninth on Wednesday to topple the Blue Jays, there was no more late magic remaining as a potential winning streak turned into the Angels’ ninth loss in the past 12 games.
Early trouble turned into promise when Angels starter Jose Soriano saw the Blue Jays load the bases after four pitches on three consecutive singles. He created his own momentum by striking out George Springer, Daulton Varsho and Alejandro Kirk to construct the rare six-batter, no-run inning.
Taylor Ward and Jo Adell hit much-needed home runs in the first two innings against Blue Jays right-hander Chris Bassitt.
“We knew going in that we had to be stingy with balls and strikes against (Bassitt) and that he’s going to try to attack the zone,” Adell said. “Just try to stay aggressive early and I got a pitch to handle.”
Then the offense went quiet, looking more like the crew that is in the bottom third of MLB in runs scored.
It was far from it in the bottom of the first when Nolan Schanuel hit a one-out double and Ward hit a home run to left. It was Ward’s second home run of the week, but he still began the day on a 3-for-35 downturn over his previous 10 games.
The Angels made it 3-0 in the second inning when Adell hit a one-out home run, also his second of the week but one that came after his own 2-for-32 slide in his previous 11 games. Zach Neto added a second run in the inning when he scored on a fielding error by Toronto shortstop Bo Bichette.
“Anytime you center a ball the way they did, that’s progress,” Manager Ron Washington said of Ward and Adell. “But you’re looking for consistency. At times it looks like it’s coming and then it doesn’t. The time it doesn’t you have to look at the pitcher and see what he’s doing. Pitching does stop hitting and Bassitt is a veteran dealing with an inexperienced lineup and he got into the seventh inning.”
From there, the advantage melted away.
Varsho began to make his presence known in the third on an RBI double, while Kirk had an RBI ground out one batter later. The Blue Jays pulled within a run in the fifth inning against Soriano on Addison Barger’s RBI single.
Then came Toronto’s revenge in the sixth, which started much like the first when they loaded the bases within their first batters against Ryan Johnson. It took on a life of its own when Anthony Sander hit a two-run single on Brock Burke’s first pitch, Varsho had a sacrifice fly and Barger grounded out for a run.
The Angels got a run back in the seventh on a sacrifice fly from Logan O’Hoppe before the Blue Jays matched it in the eighth when Varsho homered for his third RBI of the game.
Soriano gave up three runs on eight hits over five innings with six strikeouts as he failed to build on his six scoreless innings against the Detroit Tigers last Friday. He walked four Blue Jays batters.
“I don’t get frustrated because that’s part of the game,” Soriano said through an interpreter when asked about the walks. “Sometimes I’m going to walk people and other days I’m not going to walk anybody. We’re going to still keep working.”
Johnson (1-1) took the loss for the first time in his 14th major league appearance after he was charged with three runs on two hits and a walk without recording an out. Johnson has been charged with a run in each of his past four outings.
“In games like this, when we’re struggling on the pitching side, we have to pick those guys up, so we have to go back to that early-inning mentality,” Adell said. “Find a pitch and if it’s not your pitch, let the next guy do his job. We’ll get back there, we just didn’t get it done tonight.”
Toronto snapped a four-game losing streak and won for just the fifth time in its past 17 games.