Angels Lose To Nationals, 6-5, As They Get Swept Out In DC

The Los Angeles Angels lost again to the Washington Nationals, 6-5, as they blew an early lead and a late lead, only to fall short with their final rally and  get swept in DC. 

The sequence was a variation on a familiar formula for the Halos. The first three innings were scoreless, which was more than a bit of a surprise given that the starter was Grayson Rodriguez, but the Angels got on the board first in the fourth inning on a solo homer from Moises Ballasteros to the opposite field off Jake Irvin, who worked as a bulk reliever in this one. 

The Halos added another run on a solo homer in the fifth from Zach Neto, but their two-run lead didn’t last long as the game became a back-and-forth battle.

Rodriguez was strong through the first five scoreless innings, but he lost his shutout in the sixth as Washington came back to tie the game at 2-2. 

The rally started with a double from CJ Abrams, and Yohandy Moreles singled to score Abrams. That brought Rodriguez’s day to an end, but Daylen Lile kept the rally going with a single, and reliever Tyler Saucedo hit Keibert Ruize with a pitch. Brady House then grounded into a forceout, with Morales scoring on the play. 

The Angels retook the leight in the eighth on some poor relief work from Erik Tolman, who walked two hitters to set up the rally. The first run scored on a wild pitch, with Ballasteros driving home the second with a sacrifice fly to make it 4-2. 

But the Nats came right back with four more off a pair of Angels reliever, with the RBIs supplied by an RBI triple from Daylen Liles, a run-scoring single from Jorbit Vivas , a double from Jacob Young and a single from Drew Crews to make it 6-4. 

The Angels did mount their obligatory rally that fell short in the ninth, though, with Josh Lowe hitting a double and later scoring on a groundout by Christian Moore. But Neto struck out swinging to end the game, and that put the sweep in the books for Washington as they won their third straight.  

The loss gave the Angel a new three-game losing streak to deal with, and they’ll head home to play the Seattle Mariners, starting tomorrow night when they’ll send Reid Detmers to the mound against Kade Anderson for Seattle.