ANAHEIM, Calif. ― 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 Saturday.
The Angels face a daunting challenge Sunday: trying to snap a four-game losing streak against the Diamondbacks’ staff ace, Zac Gallen.
Right-hander Ryne Nelson (5-4) allowed three hits and one run over 71/3 innings. 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.
On a night when Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani combined to go 0-for-7 with five strikeouts, the absence of a tertiary 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 jammed his shoulder, causing him to miss the first two games of the series.
At 44-41, the Angels are two games out of the third and final wild-card berth in the American League, and two games behind the Houston Astros (45-38) for second place in the AL West.
In the ninth inning, Diamondbacks pitcher Scott McGough walked Taylor Ward and Matt Thaiss with two outs. Hunter Renfroe struck out to end the game.
Rendon’s home run was offset by a critical error in the sixth inning.
With two outs in the inning, Arizona had runners on first and third against Angels pitcher Sam Bachman (1-2). Dominic Fletcher hit a sharp single that glanced off his brother, Angels shortstop David Fletcher, and into left field. That tied the game 1-1.
Ketel Marte then hit a routine ground ball to Rendon at third base, but his throw to first base 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 off the game, but an offense that left no margin for error effectively undid 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 season, Anderson held opponents to a .179 (41-for-229) 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.
