ANAHEIM — Any chance the Angels had of evening their record and building some momentum heading into the All-Star break evaporated during an ugly fourth inning in which the Arizona Diamondbacks scored four unearned runs en route to a 5-1 victory on Sunday afternoon at Angel Stadium.
One day after amassing 15 hits in Saturday night’s 10-5 win, the Angels mustered only three hits on Sunday. Arizona starter Merrill Kelly somehow managed to limit the Angels to one run and one hit in five innings despite walking four of the first 10 batters he faced and throwing just 58 of his 98 pitches for strikes.
Angels right-hander Jose Soriano experienced his usual control problems, walking three batters during a five-inning, five-hit, 91-pitch start in which only one of the five runs he allowed was earned. Soriano, who is 6-7 with a 3.90 ERA, ranks second among major league pitchers with 55 walks in 113 innings.
But it was the shaky defense that was most responsible for the Angels falling to 47-49 heading into the break, third baseman Yoán Moncada committing one of his two errors in the fateful fourth inning.
“We had our chances, and we didn’t make some plays,” Angels interim manager Ray Montgomery said. “It would have been nice to get that one and complete the sweep and a real good homestead going to the break, but we’re in a good spot.”
The Angels parlayed Zach Neto’s aggressive baserunning into a 1-0 lead in the third, Neto leading off with a walk, tagging up and taking second on Nolan Schanuel’s fly ball to center and scoring on Mike Trout’s single to left-center, career RBI No. 995 for the three-time American League MVP.
But Moncada’s second error of the game opened the door for the Diamondbacks to score four times in the top of the fourth.
Geraldo Perdomo led off with a walk and took second on Josh Naylor’s single to left-center. Eugenio Suárez followed with a grounder to the left of Moncada, who attempted to snag the ball, step on the third-base bag and throw to first for a potential double play.
The wiser choice would have been for Moncada to field the ball and throw to second, the base his momentum was carrying him toward. Instead, Moncada leaned toward third before securing the ball, which rolled under his glove and into left field, allowing Perdomo to score for a 1-1 tie.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. popped out to shortstop, and Alek Thomas struck out, but Blaze Alexander dunked a soft RBI double to left for a 2-1 lead. Angels left fielder Taylor Ward fielded the ball cleanly but neglected to throw to second, where he might have had a play on Alexander.
Switch-hitting catcher Jose Herrera then sliced a two-run double just inside the third-base bag for a 4-1 Arizona lead.
“Sori’s grinding right there, he’s working through it, and he made a pitch,” Montgomery said. “Nobody feels worse than Yo. That’s a ball he makes a play on 99 out of 100 times. It led to a few runs and put Sori in a tough spot.”
Should Moncada, who is playing with a sore right knee, have gone to second base on the Suarez grounder instead of attempting the tag-the-bag-and-throw double play?
“I didn’t talk to him about it, but, you know, with Suarez, he’s got a chance to just roll that one over,” Montgomery said. “Obviously we all know that If he had a chance to do it over again, he probably would have just spun the double play [and thrown to second] the way we normally do.”
The Diamondbacks took advantage of another defensive miscue to tack on an insurance run in the fifth. With two outs and Perdomo on first, Suarez blooped a hit to shallow right.
Angels right fielder LaMonte Wade Jr. raced in and fell short in his attempt to make a diving catch, the ball getting by him and allowing Perdomo to score from first on the double for a 5-1 lead.
Moncada was pulled from the game in the sixth.
“He keeps telling me he’s good to go and he’s battling through some stuff – we all know that,” Montgomery said. “At that point, with the four days coming up, I just wanted to give him a little extra breather and so I got him out of the game.”