BALTIMORE —The version of Tyler Anderson who got off to such an encouraging start this season is nowhere to be seen.
Anderson gave up six runs – despite facing a team that’s been the worst in baseball against lefties – as the Angels lost 6-5 to the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday afternoon.
After posting a 2.58 ERA in his first eight starts, Anderson has a 7.28 ERA in his last six starts, giving him a 4.44 ERA for the season.
“I feel like everything right now is a hit,” Anderson said. “I feel like earlier in the year, if they hit balls, they were at guys. I don’t know if the contact has changed or not. But it just feels like, right now, every ball that gets put in play is a hit. Whether that’s lucky, unlucky, bad pitches, if it’s a good pitch and it’s softly hit, it falls. If it’s a bad pitch and it gets hit hard, it falls. If it’s a good pitch and it gets hit hard, it falls.”
Anderson said the back tightness that affected him in late May is no longer an issue.
“Right now I feel like I’m pitching better than it shows, to me anyway,” he said. “Staying in the strike zone. I’m making good, for the most part, good pitches. Not all of them, but you’re not going to be perfect 100%. But it just feels like everything right now is falling.”
Anderson should have been in a position to have a strong outing on Saturday because the Orioles came into the game with a major-league worst .557 OPS against lefties. The Orioles had lost 15 of their first 19 games against lefty starters. (The Angels will send lefty Yusei Kikuchi to the mound to try to avoid a sweep on Sunday.)
Anderson had given up three runs – two of them because of defensive mistakes – through five innings, and had a 4-3 lead when he took the mound in the sixth.
Anderson walked Ramon Laureano, and then threw a first-pitch changeup over the middle of the plate, and Cedric Mullins – a left-handed hitter – hit a two-run homer. He said, after the walk, he was trying to get ahead with a changeup to Mullins.
“The way he was swinging early in the game you feel like you get a foul ball or a take,” Anderson said. “Just hung it.”
Anderson then gave up a homer to Gary Sanchez on a 3-and-2 changeup over the middle.
Before that inning, Anderson was mostly doing the job. He would have allowed just one run in five innings if the Angels (33-36) had played tighter defense in the third.
With two outs and no one on, shortstop Zach Neto failed to make the play on a ball that he couldn’t get out of his glove after a sliding stop over the middle. It was scored as an infield hit.
“He just couldn’t get it out of his glove,” Manager Ron Washington said. “If he got out of glove, those two runs would have came off the board… He just didn’t get the grip. Even though he was still on the ground, if he’d gotten the grip, he’d have been able to throw him out. Just didn’t work in our favor.”
Catcher Logan O’Hoppe then lost track of a ball in the dirt just long enough to let Adley Rutschman take second. He scored on a single.
The Angels couldn’t do enough at the plate to overcome their deficiencies on the mound and at the plate, but they did have a few encouraging performances.
Luis Rengifo, who has been in a slump all season, hit two homers, one from each side of the plate. His only other homer this season was April 5. Rengifo’s first homer briefly gave the Angels a 4-3 lead in the top of the sixth. His second cut a two-run deficit in half in the eighth.
“It’s nice to see him start swinging the bat,” Washington said. “We know he’s got it in him. Now, we’ve just got to try to find some consistency. He got one from both sides the plate. Hope it gets him on a high where he can come in here and start putting some real good at-bats together the way he’s capable.”
Taylor Ward had three hits, including a game-tying double in the fifth.
After a torrid May, Ward has been in a slump in early June. Washington gave him Friday off, which allowed for two straight days off because there was no game Thursday.
The Angels could have had more in the fifth, but the inning ended with pinch-hitter Scott Kingery grounding out with the bases loaded. Washington, who used Jorge Soler to pinch-hit in that spot the next time through the order, said he “messed that up” by not using Soler in the fifth. Soler struck out when he pinch-hit in the eighth.
Washington’s first instinct likely was to save Soler for later in the game to minimize the amount of time he would have to play in right field. Soler has been dealing with a groin issue that’s affected him sporadically since Mike Trout’s return to the DH spot has forced Soler into extra time in the outfield.
Trout put the Angels on the board first with a two-run homer in the first inning, his 11th homer of the season. Trout also drew two walks.