ANAHEIM — On a day that the Angels had a chance to build some momentum by winning back-to-back series for the first time in nearly a month, they instead played a fundamental mess of a game.
The Angels made mistakes in the field and on the bases in a 7-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday.
A day after the Angels (16-23) played a clean game with good pitching, defense and hitting, the Angels didn’t have much of anything working on Sunday.
“All around, I think we need to tighten it up, myself included,” left fielder Taylor Ward said. “Just learn from it and turn the page.”
Ward made the first mistake of the day when he lost a routine fly ball with two outs in the first. It dropped behind him for a run-scoring triple.
“Once it hit the sky, I lost it completely,” Ward said. “It wasn’t in the sun or anything. Just lost it in the sky.”
Third baseman Yoán Moncada booted an easy grounder to start the fifth. That opened the door for the Orioles to score two unearned runs, taking a 3-2 lead.
Right-hander Connor Brogdon took the mound in the sixth, and he walked two of the first three batters he faced. One scored on a wild pitch, and the second came home on a suicide squeeze.
The Angels also scuttled a chance at a big inning at the plate with poor fundamentals in the third inning.
With Moncada at second and Jorge Soler at first and one out, Ward lined a single into right field. Third base coach Bo Porter stopped Moncada, but Soler never slowed down as he rounded second. Soler and Moncada both ended up at third, and Soler was tagged out.
Manager Ron Washington said he had no problem with Porter’s decision to hold Moncada. Right fielder Tyler O’Neill is a two-time Gold Glove winner who is currently leading major league right fielders in outfield assists, with five. Also, there was only one out, so the third base coach is supposed to play it safer than with two outs.
“That was a good decision (by Porter),” Washington said. “The problem came when Jorge didn’t run with his head up.”
Logan O’Hoppe then grounded out, and the Angels came away from the inning with nothing.
At that point, the Angels had a 2-1 lead, so a couple more runs — and getting into the soft part of the Orioles bullpen — could have changed the trajectory of the game.
Instead, the left themselves no margin for error, and the defense let that lead get away a couple innings later.
“We were ready to go,” Washington said. “We just didn’t make the plays.”
Starter Tyler Anderson was charged with three runs in his five innings, but he shouldn’t have allowed any. He didn’t see it that way.
“I did a bad job of giving up those runs in the fifth,” Anderson said. “Anytime someone makes an error behind you, you want to pick them up. These guys are trying hard, playing hard, and it probably hurts them more than anybody else. They feel it. So you want to pick them up as best you can. I let him down in the fifth inning.”
Anderson remains one of the most positive storylines in an otherwise dismal start to the Angels’ season.
The 35-year-old has a 2.58 ERA. His 21.0% strikeout rate and 9.1% walk rate are both better than in either of his first two seasons with the Angels.
“I feel in a better spot than I had been the last couple years, in terms of just command,” Anderson said. “I feel like, for the most part, I’m trying to make better pitches and just feel more comfortable out there than I think I had maybe the last couple years.”
Matthew Lugo also provided a nice moment when he hit his first career homer as a pinch-hitter in the ninth inning. Lugo made his major league debut on Friday.