ANAHEIM — The Angels could not have asked for a better scoring opportunity when they were down by a run in the eighth inning.
They had the bases loaded, with no outs.
But Logan O’Hoppe, Luis Rengifo and Christian Moore all struck out, stranding the runners and sending the Angels on their way to a 5-4 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday afternoon.
“You certainly expect to come away with at least one there, maybe more,” interim manager Ray Montgomery said. “You know, obviously, Griffin (Jax) is tough. He made some pitches there too. I was just trying to get some contact, put a ball in play. Something would have been good. Our pitchers did a great job. The bullpen did a great job to keep us in the game. So we just didn’t get it done.”
The Angels (55-60) lost two of three in the series, wasting a day in which Mike Trout’s three-run homer in the third erased what had been an early four-run deficit.
It was Trout’s 398th career homer.
On the eve of his 34th birthday, Trout also demonstrated that he can still run when the situation demands it. He beat out an infield hit to lead off the eighth, with his second-best sprint speed of the year.
“He has it in him when he needs it,” Montgomery said. “We’re using a bit of a governor with him. And being smart. If he’s gonna hit a ground ball to short and he’s out by 10 feet, there’s no sense to turn the jets on there. But he knows when balls are, obviously, in his favor, or at least going to be 50-50 type plays. So he knows when he has a little bit extra.”
Trout, who was hurt back in April on a similar play, said he’s now conscious of trying to hit the bag with his right leg instead of his left.
After Trout’s hit, Taylor Ward followed with a walk and Jo Adell reached on catcher’s interference, loading the bases.
Jax, who has struck out 36% of the hitters he’s faced this year, made sure that was the end of the rally, though.
In the ninth, the Angels went down in order, with the game ending with Trout on deck.
The Rays had retaken the lead in the seventh on Christopher Morel’s homer against Ryan Zeferjahn.
It didn’t look like it would end up being a one-run game the way it started for Angels left-hander Tyler Anderson. He gave up four runs on three homers in the first three innings. Junior Caminero’s two-run homer in the first followed a botched rundown, in which the Angels should have had Rays speedster Chandler Simpson picked off first.
“That should be a solo shot, if we just handle the ball a little better,” Montgomery said. “And that might be the difference in the game, even though it didn’t seem like it then.”
Although the Angels were down 4-0 in the third, they bounced back in the bottom of the inning.
Rengifo singled and Moore walked. Two strikeouts later, the runners were still stranded. Nolan Schanuel then dropped a bloop single into right to drive in one.
With runners on the corners, Trout worked the count full and hammered a curveball from Shane Baz into the Angels bullpen for a tying three-run homer.
It was the kind of moment that has come infrequently for Trout lately. He’s been striking out at a higher than normal clip, with 22 strikeouts in his last 42 plate appearances.
“Just pulling off balls,” Trout said. “My work in the cage has been great, just trying to translate into the game. I felt better. I am just getting stuck on the backside and flying open.”
In his very next trip to the plate, Trout was back into his slump. He struck out with runners at the corners and one out, with a chance to snap a tie.
He had two of the Angels’ 16 strikeouts, which included that ugly sequence in the eighth.
“Less than two outs and man on third base, got to get him in,” Trout said. “We had a lot of chances. We gave ourselves chances. We didn’t execute.”