ANAHEIM — The Angels’ 6-3 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Friday night provided the perfect example of why so many observers wondered why the Angels didn’t sell at the deadline.
The White Sox are hopelessly out of the race. The Angels, meanwhile, are close enough that General Manager Perry Minasian thought there was value in keeping the roster together to play meaningful games.
Look closer, though, and the teams aren’t that different. The Angels’ run differential (-69) is actually worse than the White Sox (-61), even though the Angels have won 12 more games. The only reason the Angels (53-57) have a competitive record is that they’ve gone 20-12 in one-run games.
In this one they didn’t get good enough pitching and the lineup managed only four hits. They still could have scored more if not for two costly outs at third base.
In the first inning, they loaded the bases with no outs, but then Zach Neto was picked off third by catcher Edgar Quero. There was no reason for Neto to be taking an aggressive lead that far off the base. Neto was out by enough that the Angels didn’t even challenge.
“It’s unacceptable,” Neto said. “That’s the only thing to say about it. … A boneheaded mistake. Can’t happen in that moment.”
Jo Adell then struck out. After a walk re-loaded the bases, Logan O’Hoppe grounded out, so the Angels got nothing out of the rally.
“We had that guy in the ropes,” interim manager Ray Montgomery said. “He did a good job of getting out of it. With our help … (The pickoff) was kind of a little bit of a momentum killer. And yet, even at that, we still had multiple chances to put something across there and didn’t. So that hurts.”
In the seventh inning, the Angels were trailing, 4-3, with Travis d’Arnaud at second and Gustavo Campero at first. Nolan Schanuel ripped a two-out line drive into right field, seemingly driving in d’Arnaud with the tying run.
Campero tried to take third on the play, and the White Sox threw him out, tagging him for the third out just a moment before d’Arnaud stepped on the plate. The run didn’t count.
“We got to make a better decision there,” Montgomery said. “Obviously, with the tying run, the ball being hit as hard as it was, if anything, you can trade the out for the run, but you’ve got to stop there. We talked to Campy about it afterwards. You gotta play through the play, too.”
Otherwise, the Angels didn’t do enough at the plate, going down in order five times. Two of their runs came on Campero’s 438-foot, two-run homer in the fifth. That cut the deficit to 3-2.
The Angels were trying to come from behind the whole night because starter Tyler Anderson wasn’t at the top of his game, despite managing to get through six innings.
Anderson was one out away from a quality start when he gave up his third homer of the game, a sixth-inning solo shot to Colson Montgomery. Anderson had allowed solo homers to Andrew Benintendi and Lenyn Sosa in the second inning. He also gave up a run in the fourth.
Anderson ended up getting through six innings, allowing four runs.
It was Anderson’s 18th consecutive start without picking up a victory, dating to April. He has a 5.03 ERA over that span.
“For sake of not wanting to sound like a broken record, I’ve got nothing,” Anderson said when reporters asked him to evaluate the game. “Same (expletive) for 15 starts, so I don’t really have anything here.”
Pressed to elaborate, he said: “Good pitches, not good result. Bad pitches, not good result. Just not doing a good job in general. I gotta do a better job for a team that’s playing really well, to give us a better chance.”
The Angels’ two newest relievers pitched the seventh and eighth innings. Left-hander Andrew Chafin got through a scoreless inning, but then Garcia gave up a run, restoring the deficit to two runs. Right-hander Connor Brogdon gave up a homer to No. 9 hitter Josh Rojas in the ninth.