DENVER — The two teams that sent the Angels to the first seven games of their losing streak – the Seattle Mariners and Milwaukee Brewers – are in first place in their divisions.
And then came No. 8, against a team whose season ended around Mother’s Day.
The Angels lost, 7-6, to the Colorado Rockies on Friday night, falling to a team that for much of the year was on pace to break record for futility set by the Chicago White Sox last season.
Those White Sox, you might remember, swept the Angels last September, a brief respite on their way to 121 losses.
The Rockies (42-112) assured themselves that they won’t equal the White Sox’s record by virtue of their victory over the Angels on Friday.
The Angels (69-85) are now in the midst of their longest losing streak since they dropped 14 in a row in 2022.
“We’re at that state now where it’s a little disappointing, given what we did for three and a half, four months,” interim manager Ray Montgomery said. “We weren’t lighting the world on fire, but certainly (showing) improvement, and getting to see some of the core playing together and doing the things we were doing. It just leaves a bad taste in everybody’s mouth. Especially with those guys. They’re grinding. They’re still working. There’s no quit. There’s effort. We just have to get a little break here and there and hopefully break the momentum.”
This loss went to rookie left-hander Mitch Farris, who in just his fourth major league game drew the unfortunate assignment of pitching at Coors Field. He ended up soaking up seven earned runs in 4⅓ innings.
Farris struck out five and he induced 14 whiffs, including six of the 10 swings at his changeup. He also kept the ball in the park – with the help of a home run-robbing catch from center fielder Bryce Teodosio.
“Definitely tough and good learning experience,” Farris said. “I knew I had to deal with some adjustments, and knew that going in. The first inning, that’s kind of what that was, is figuring out where I need to start everything to get in the zone and get one of my pitches where I wanted them to be. Overall, just take it and move on and be ready for the next time come back here.”
Otherwise, he was hit hard. Two of the eight hits he allowed had exit velocities below 90 mph, meaning they were bloopers that dropped into the vast outfield. The rest were hit hard enough to be hits anywhere.
Just after the Angels handed him a 6-3 lead in the top of the fifth, Farris gave up back-to-back hits and a walk to loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the inning.
The performance ballooned Farris’ ERA to 6.98 after his first 19⅓ innings in the majors. His 19 strikeouts do provide some reason to believe that he has the stuff to be a big leaguer.
The Angels were only down by one run with four innings to play when the book was closed on Farris. They had plenty of time, but they wasted it.
The Angels didn’t even get a runner in scoring position over the final four innings. That’s especially egregious at Coors Field, a ballpark where bloopers and ground balls often turn into doubles.
“Honestly, I expected there would be more runs to come,” Montgomery said. “In this place, especially late, runs can come at any point. Their bullpen did a good job. We didn’t get anybody into scoring position. I was hoping we ended up getting more runs, but it didn’t work out that way.”
During the Angels’ losing streak, the offense had been mostly silent, with the exception of a handful of solo or two-run homers. It had been a week since the Angels scored a run without hitting a homer.
When Christian Moore connected on a two-run homer in the second and then Denzer Guzman followed with a solo homer, it ran the streak to 14 straight Angels runs scoring on homers.
Of course it was no coincidence that the Angels were in that rut when Nolan Schanuel – their best pure hitter – was hurt. Schanuel returned on Sunday, and snapped the streak with a two-run double in the fifth. Yoán Moncada added a sacrifice fly to put the Angels ahead 6-3.
Mike Trout came up empty in his bid to hit career homer No. 400 at Coors Field. He hit two fly balls to the warning track in center, though.