ANAHEIM — The Seattle Mariners brought the Home Run Derby to Orange County and all the Angels could do Saturday was turn their collective heads and watch the vapor trails.
The Angels absorbed a 7-2 defeat as the Mariners launched three home runs, including the major league-leading 40th from catcher Cal Raleigh. Fellow mashers Julio Rodriguez and Randy Arozarena also went deep for Seattle.
Raleigh used his switch-hitting prowess to win the Derby earlier this month in Atlanta. Saturday’s homer was just his second since achieving long-ball glory, but No. 40 not only extended his major league lead, it made him the seventh different primary catcher to hit the mark in MLB history.
The Angels have now dropped two of three in the series and five of eight to the Mariners this season. They are also 3-6 since the break as the search for offense continues. The Angels have not scored more than three runs in any of their past five games.
“Part of that is that you have to tip your cap to the pitchers you’re facing,” interim manager Ray Montgomery said. “These guys have a good staff. … The runner-in-scoring-position thing (0-for-7), we came up a little bit short tonight. Guys are grinding. They’re working their way through it. We just didn’t get it tonight.”
Doing their best to match power swings with their opponent, the Angels did get a home run from Taylor Ward and nearly got another from Zach Neto in the fifth. Neto’s deep fly ball to center died at the wall, although it did bring home Logan O’Hoppe for a brief 2-2 tie.
After getting 4⅔ innings from left-hander Tyler Anderson, who gave up home runs to Rodriguez and Arozarena, right-hander José Fermin (2-2) entered in the sixth inning and gave up Raleigh’s go-ahead home run deep to right field, while batting left-handed, on his third pitch.
Raleigh now has three of his 40 home runs against the Angels. His select group of masked men who have reached the 40-homer club includes Johnny Bench and Mike Piazza, who have done it twice, as well as Roy Campanella, Todd Hundley, Javy Lopez and Salvador Perez.
The Angels had five hits against Seattle right-hander George Kirby, but in something of an improvement, they struck out nine times in six innings after they went down 14 times in seven innings against Kirby during a June 8 loss at Anaheim.
Mike Trout went 0-for-3 with a walk as he remained one RBI short of 1,000 for his career. He is also four home runs shy of 400. Trout entered 3-for-19 (.158) over his previous five games.
With Chris Taylor (hand) and Jorge Soler (back) both going on the injured list Saturday, LaMonte Wade Jr. started in right field and went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. He entered batting .180 over his first 29 games with the Angels and .171 in 79 combined games this season.
The Angels then lost Yoán Moncada in the sixth inning when he was hit in the right hand by a Kirby pitch. X-rays were negative for a fracture.
“I thought at first that I had a broken finger because it was numb,” Moncada said through an interpreter after the 96.4-mph fastball made solid contact just above his right pinky finger.
Moncada said it is too early to tell if he can play Sunday, keeping his status as “day-to-day.” He was replaced on the bases and at third base by Kevin Newman.
“It hurts a little bit. Maybe tomorrow I will be better,” Moncada said.
The cool evening at least started promising when Ward gave the Angels a 1-0 lead on a home run to center against Kirby, his team-leading 24th of the season.
Rodriguez hit a home run to center in the third against Anderson to tie the game, his 18th, and Arozarena went out to center one inning later, his 20th, for a 2-1 Seattle advantage. Neto’s sacrifice fly to the wall in center tied the game in the fifth.
Anderson threw 88 pitches in his 4⅔ innings, but the two home runs he allowed were solo shots.
“My goal tonight was to not walk anybody and probably in those situations throw some pitches that maybe I wouldn’t always (throw), but in general I probably made pretty good pitches most of the night,” said Anderson, who had one strikeout with no walks.
With the trade deadline approaching Thursday, there is a chance Anderson could have made his final start with the Angels.
“I haven’t really thought about it at all,” Anderson said. “I’m an Angel. Really, every night I’m just going out there to give us the best chance to win and save the bullpen.”
Raleigh’s home run started a four-run sixth inning for the Mariners that included a two-run single from Dominic Canzone and an unearned run for a 6-2 advantage when second baseman Luis Rengifo booted a J.P. Crawford ground ball that would have gone for the third out.
“We talk about that, that if we’re going to give up home runs, I’d much prefer they were solo homers, not walk somebody in front of them, those kind of things,” Montgomery said. “And we did do that. We limited that. And then the (Canzone) base hit through the hole there opened it up a little bit.”
Ben Williamson had an RBI single against Angels right-hander Carson Fulmer in the eighth as the Mariners took a 7-2 lead.