DENVER — At this point in a disappointing season, the Angels will have to settle for victories someplace other than the scoreboard.
The scoreboard showed a 3-1 loss to the Colorado Rockies on Sunday afternoon, which cost the Angels a series against a team with 113 losses.
They dropped this game because, even though they were playing in a ballpark where runs typically come easily, they stopped scoring after pushing one home in the first.
The “victory,” though, was what right-hander Caden Dana did.
The 21-year-old gave up two runs in six innings, his first quality start since his major league debut. Dana brought a 7.45 ERA for this season into Sunday afternoon’s game.
Dana was sharp in five of the six innings that he pitched, and he minimized the damage in the other.
“He was solid,” interim manager Ray Montgomery said. “He gave us everything you could ask for here.”
Dana issued three walks in a 24-pitch second inning, as the Rockies scored a run. After that inning, he had a talk with pitching coach Barry Enright and made some adjustments.
“I think more mental than mechanical,” Dana said. “Sometimes just trying to be too fine. Trying to be too quick, instead of just keeping it simple and just attacking guys.”
Outside of that, Dana gave up two singles and a solo homer to Blaine Crim. Dana struck out five, and he finished with just those three walks.
Dana used the PitchCom for the first time in the big leagues. He said he wanted more control over what pitches he threw than the typical method, with the catcher Logan O’Hoppe calling the pitches and the pitcher shaking off when he disagrees.
“I wanted to start having a little more conviction in the stuff I’m throwing,” Dana said. “To be honest today, Logan called maybe half those pitches. So no dis to him. He does a great, incredible job with that. It was more of a self, mental thing to take the PitchCom today.”
Starting pitching has been an issue for the Angels for years, so any quality outing from one of their young pitchers provides a glimmer of hope for the future. Dana, who has one start left this season, still has some work to do, most notably to avoid walks.
He didn’t deserve a loss on Sunday, but the Angels (70-86) couldn’t do anything against Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland.
Mike Trout led off the game with a double and scored on a Jo Adell single, his 96th RBI of the season.
That was it.
Logan O’Hoppe and Christian Moore struck out in the first, stranding two runners. O’Hoppe hit into an inning-ending double play with two on in the sixth.
Pinch-hitter Yoán Moncada led off the eighth with a single. Trout then struck out on a check swing as pinch-runner Chris Taylor was thrown out trying to steal second.
The Angels racked up another 12 strikeouts, giving them 1,571 for the season, which is tied for the 11th most in major league history. With six games left, they are not likely to break the record held by the 2023 Minnesota Twins (1,654).
“We had a chance to do some more damage there (in the first) and we didn’t get it done,” Montgomery said. “Obviously, strike three was a good pitch, and then (Freeland) made an adjustment a little bit, in terms of his mix, and we didn’t bounce back at him.”