Angels blow 9th-inning lead in loss to Phillies
ANAHEIM — The Angels received a pair of gut punches on Tuesday.
One came in the afternoon, when they learned they would be without injured Mike Trout for an extended period of time. The second was hours later, when they coughed up a late two-run lead in a 7-5 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Angels rallied from an early three-run deficit to take a two-run lead in the sixth, but the good feelings were short-lived. They gave up one run in the eighth and then Carlos Estevez yielded three in the ninth.
Estévez gave up a game-tying homer to Nick Castellanos, then a double to Bryson Stott and then a two-run homer to No. 9 hitter Johan Rojas.
It was the second blown save of the season for Estévez, and it spoiled what was shaping up to be an encouraging response to the loss of Trout.
Earlier in the day, the Angels learned that Trout needs surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee. Although they are expecting to get Trout back at some point this season, there is no timetable.
In the meantime, the Angels rolled out a lineup with Jo Adell, Taylor Ward, Brandon Drury and Luis Rengifo in the second through fifth spots on Tuesday night.
They were down 3-0 in the second inning, when Zach Neto put the Angels on the board with a homer to right center.
After that, the Angels didn’t threaten until the sixth inning. Ward reached on a out-out infield single. Drury then hit a bouncer directly to shortstop Trea Turner. Instead of a routine, inning-ending double play, Turner bobbled it and couldn’t make a play anywhere.
Rengifo hammered the very next pitch over the right field fence for a three-run homer, putting the Angels ahead, 4-3.
An out later, Cole Tucker doubled. He scored on a single from Mickey Moniak, who is now going to get most of the action in center field replacing Trout.
The Angels then had nine outs to get to secure the victory, and they couldn’t do it. Right-hander Luis Garcia worked a perfect seventh. Left-hander Matt Moore, who was pitching for the third day in a row, gave up a run in the eighth, recording two outs.
Manager Ron Washington then brought in Estévez, looking for four outs.
Estévez couldn’t lock up the victory for Tyler Anderson, who gave up three runs in six innings, all of them coming on one swing of Kyle Schwarber’s bat in the second inning.
Anderson gave up a one-out single to Nick Castellanos and then he walked Bryson Stott. An out later, he threw Schwarber a 2-and-1 fastball over the outer half of the plate and Schwarber launched it into the left field seats.
After that, though, Anderson locked down for the rest of his outing. He faced just one over the minimum over the next four innings, including five strikeouts.
Anderson has a 2.23 ERA through six starts, a significant improvement from last year’s 5.43 mark.
More to come on this story.