Angels go quietly against Diamondbacks, lose fourth straight game
ANAHEIM ― How cold has the Angels’ offense gone over the last week?
They scored 25 runs in a single game against the Colorado Rockies on June 24. They’ve played six games since then and scored 23.
For the second straight day, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ pitchers encountered little resistance before an announced crowd of 44,472 at Angel Stadium. The Angels mustered only three hits in their 3-1 loss on Saturday night.
The Angels face a daunting challenge Sunday: trying to snap a four-game losing streak against the Diamondbacks’ staff ace, Zac Gallen.
“We’re facing some really good arms this entire week starting (Sunday),” Angels manager Phil Nevin said. “We know what’s ahead of us.”
Unheralded right-hander Ryne Nelson (5-4) allowed three hits and one run over 7⅓ innings Saturday. He faced only four batters with a runner in scoring position and held the Angels hitless.
The one run he allowed: a solo home run by Anthony Rendon in the fourth inning, Rendon’s second home run this season.
In the ninth inning, Diamondbacks pitcher Scott McGough walked Taylor Ward and Matt Thaiss with two outs, giving the Angels one final hope. McGough then struck out Renfroe to end the game.
To his credit, Renfroe took the first pitch he saw after McGough issued back-to-back walks. Seven of the Angels’ plate appearances ended on the first pitch Saturday, a counterargument to their aggressive approach.
“If we’re getting hits on the first pitch we’re not talking about this,” Nevin said. “We’ve got to be better.”
Rendon’s home run was offset by a critical error he made in the sixth inning.
With two outs, Arizona put runners on first and third against Angels pitcher Sam Bachman (1-2). Dominic Fletcher hit a sharp single that glanced off the glove of his brother, Angels shortstop David Fletcher, and into left field. That tied the score at 1-1.
Ketel Marte hit a routine grounder to Rendon at third base, but his throw to first caused Renfroe to pull his foot off the bag. Marte stepped on the base before Renfroe could tag him, allowing Nick Ahmed to score on a play that should have marked the final out of the inning.
The Diamondbacks scored an insurance run in the seventh inning against Chris Devenski on a Gabriel Moreno single and a Jake McCarthy triple. Aaron Loup pitched two scoreless innings to finish the game.
An offense that left no margin for error negated a promising start by Angels pitcher Tyler Anderson. The veteran left-hander threw five scoreless innings, working around a bevy of soft contact to hand his bullpen a 1-0 lead.
Anderson allowed five hits, all singles, and walked two batters. He also struck out three.
Perhaps most encouraging was Anderson’s changeup, the pitch that carried him to a breakout 2022 season with the Dodgers. Last year Anderson held opponents to a .179 (41 for 229) batting average against his changeup, but opponents were batting .312 (29 for 93) against the pitch entering Saturday’s game.
The Diamondbacks could do nothing with Anderson’s changeup until a weakly hit single by Kyle Lewis in the fifth inning. With the bases loaded and two outs, Anderson then used the pitch to get a swinging strike three from Christian Walker to escape further trouble. That was the last of his 92 pitches.
“He knew exactly what he needed to do with that pitch and he executed,” said Thaiss, the Angels’ catcher.
On a night when Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani combined to go 0 for 7 with five strikeouts, the absence of a tertiary lineup threat was glaring.
Angels infielder Brandon Drury had been on an eight-week tear, batting .319 with an .892 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) dating to May 12. But he missed his second straight game with a jammed shoulder.
Nevin anticipated Drury will not play Sunday either, and couldn’t rule out placing the veteran on the 10-day injured list.
“It hurts not having him in there,” Nevin said. “It’s a big bat, a big piece of what we do, but everybody goes through injuries. We’re not going to dwell on that. You’ve got to have a ‘next man up’ mentality and get through it, but losing that bat makes a big difference.”
Renfroe likened the impact of losing Drury to losing the team’s best hitter.
“It’s like taking Shohei out of the friggin’ lineup,” Renfroe said. “You get a guy who’s swinging the bat well, finding holes, driving guys in, you want him in the lineup no matter what. With him, if he has to take a few days, he has to take a few days. You’d rather take a few days than be out the rest of the season.”