The Los Angeles Angels had a chance to get back, against the Blue Jays, but instead they struck out early and often.
The Los Angeles Angels have been taking a better approach at the plate so far in this season, but they took a turn for the worse last night against the Toronto Blue Jays as the Angels struck out 18 times in their 5-2 loss.
It was a flashback to some of the bad baseball the Angles played during the second half of last season, when they threatened to set the all-time single-season record for strikeouts. Halos hitters struck out 12 times in five innings against Blue Jays starter Dylan Cease, and relievers Louis Varland and Jeff Hoffman also struck out the side as the whiff parade continue throughout the game.
The Angels did manage to score first on an RBI single by Jorge Soler that drove home Nolan Schanuel in the first inning, but Vladimir Guerrero’s two-run homer off Angels starter Reid Detmers in the third made it 2-1. A sac fly by Nolan Schanuel in the bottom of the inning tied the game at 2-2, but that was all the scoring the Angels could manage.
Cease labored to get through five as he threw 115 pitches to get those 12 strikeouts, and he managed to scatter five of the Angels’ six hits to keep the score tied. Toronto broke through against Detmers with single runs in the sixth and seventh innings, with Lenyn Sosa driving home the lead run on a sacrifice fly and an RBI single by Nathan Lukes adding another. The Blue Jays finished the scoring in the ninth on a comebacker by Lukes that brought home Myles Straw.
The strikeout kings in this one were Logan O’Hoppe, Adam Frazier and Mike Trout. O’Hoppe whiffed four times to drop his average below the Mendoza line, and he’s been an early season disappointment offensively. Frazier and Trout struck out three times each, although Trout did have a hit.
The Angels offense is now officially in a funk after meeting up with the buzzsaw San Diego Padres bullpen over the weekend, as the Halos have a three-game losing streak during which they’ve scored just four runs. It’s a disappointment after the power and production they showed in Yankee Stadium last week, but the Angels were simply punchless in this one.
Detmers pitched well enough to win despite Guerroro’s three-hit offensive show, but the Angels simply couldn’t put the ball in play enough to do anything. They’ll try again tonight with Jack Kochanowicz on the mounds against Patrick Corbin for the Blue Jays.