WEST SACRAMENTO — The Angels matched the atmosphere with their performance again.
After three straight victories against the Dodgers in an electric, sold-out Angel Stadium, they took a flight north, had an off day and got back in action in a minor league park against the A’s.
The Angels lost, 10-3, to the A’s on Friday night, in a game played before 8,484 fans at the Triple-A park the A’s have borrowed while their new home in Las Vegas is under construction.
“It’s tough,” Angels shortstop Zach Neto said of going to such a different environment. “There’s no excuse for today. We came out flat, but at the end of the day, we’ve got tomorrow, and we’ve got a chance to win the series still.”
Neto provided the Angels’ biggest highlight of the game when he hit his 20th homer, which made him the fourth player in franchise history to have multiple 20/20 seasons. Neto, who has 21 stolen bases, joined Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani and Don Baylor.
Neto said it was particularly meaningful because he missed the first few weeks of the season rehabbing from shoulder surgery.
“Just coming back all the perseverance and everything I had to overcome, I’m pretty grateful to be able to do it,” Neto said.
His fifth-inning two-run homer, which pulled the Angels within 4-3, was one of their five hits.
On the mound, starter Yusei Kikuchi had a rough game, in terms of effectiveness and efficiency.
Kikuchi gave up four runs in four innings, three of them on a Colby Thomas homer. Kikuchi hung a first-pitch curveball and Thomas blasted it 433 feet. Kikuchi gave up five hits and walked three.
“It just wasn’t a sharp outing for him,” interim manager Ray Montgomery said. “Very unusual start for him, given what we’ve seen all year.”
When Kikuchi wasn’t throwing the ball over the middle of the plate, the A’s were spoiling his better pitches. Kikuchi needed 94 pitches to get 12 outs, an average of 7.8 pitches per out. The major league average is 5.5 pitches per out.
“I think overall they had a really good approach today,” Kikuchi said through his interpreter. “Recently, I’ve gone to two strikes and had trouble putting the hitters away. I think I can work on my sequencing a little bit more.”
The A’s fouled off 37% of his pitches, which is more than double the major league average of 18%.
Inefficiency has been a constant problem for Kikuchi lately. Over his last nine games, Kikuchi has thrown 4.2 pitches per plate appearance. The major league average is 3.9. That has added up quickly, and he’s been able to complete the sixth inning in just one of those games.
Kikuchi said he would talk with pitching coach Barry Enright and catcher Travis d’Arnaud on Saturday about a way to use his pitches differently to be more efficient.
“I think I can use a changeup a little bit more and use my fastball more effectively,” Kikuchi said.
His 3.52 ERA is certainly what the Angels might have expected, but his problems getting deep in games has put a strain on the bullpen.
The Angels were only down by one run when they took Kikuchi out of the game, but then right-hander Connor Brogdon gave back the two runs from Neto’s homer.
Brogdon gave up three hits and a walk among the first six hitters he faced in the fifth. He had the same problem as Kikuchi. The A’s fouled off 28% of his pitches.
Right-hander Carson Fulmer finished the fifth, allowing a run to score on an infield hit, and then saved the bullpen by soaking up the final 3⅓ innings of the game. He gave up four runs in the eighth inning.
One of the positives for the Angels was center fielder Bryce Teodosio continuing to show off his range.
Teodosio made a spectacular catch in the right-center field gap in the third inning. Teodosio also went into right field to catch what would have been a routine fly ball for right fielder Jo Adell. Teodosio fell just after making the catch, so Nick Kurtz easily scored from third on the play. Adell would have had a better chance to throw out Kurtz, or perhaps even hold him at third.