What to make of Halos' bullpen after wild loss to Blue Jays

ANAHEIM -- It’s only nine games into a 162-game season but the bullpen has been a bit of an issue for the Angels early on.

That was again the case in a wild series finale against the Blue Jays on Sunday, as Los Angeles couldn’t hold a six-run lead keyed by early homers from Shohei Ohtani, Hunter Renfroe and Logan O'Hoppe. The Blue Jays scored 10 unanswered runs, including six against Angels relievers, only for the home team to storm back to tie the game with a run in the eighth and a three-run ninth.

But reliever Carlos Estévez came in for the 10th and allowed two runs on three hits in a frustrating 12-11 loss at Angel Stadium that handed the Halos a series loss. Manager Phil Nevin said he’s focused on the positives, including their rally in the ninth and their near comeback in the 10th, with Ohtani grounding out with the bases loaded for the final out.

“We showed a lot of fight,” Nevin said. “I love what our offense is doing. But like I said all series, the lineup over there is really, really good. It just unraveled quickly in the sixth, and we couldn’t get many outs in the seventh.”

The Angels dropped to 5-4 with the defeat. Three of their losses came with relief arms failing to protect a late lead. They couldn’t hold a one-run lead in the eighth inning on Opening Day against the A’s and they also blew a two-run lead in the seventh inning of the series opener against Toronto on Friday.

Still, Nevin brushed aside a postgame question about whether he is concerned about the bullpen, which currently sports a 4.45 ERA. The manager instead pointed out that the Blue Jays’ rally in the seventh mostly came on weakly hit balls off Ryan Tepera and Aaron Loup.

“There weren't many balls hit hard,” Nevin said. “I thought Tep threw it really good. I left him in and it just unraveled.”

Early on, it appeared the Angels were on their way to cruising to a series victory, only for the wheels to come off later on. Lefty Reid Detmers was staked to a 6-0 lead, but everything quickly came apart for him in the sixth inning.

Detmers walked George Springer to open the frame, then he gave up a single to Bo Bichette and hit Vladimir Guerrero Jr. with a pitch to load the bases. The Angels had right-hander Andrew Wantz warming up, but they decided to stick with Detmers against the right-handed-hitting Matt Chapman.

Chapman proceeded to blast a grand slam to give the Blue Jays some momentum.

“I was feeling good, but in the sixth inning, I just didn’t execute enough pitches,” Detmers said. “Bichette hit one through the hole and it just got a little out of hand after that. It just came down to execution.”

Daulton Varsho followed with a bunt single, and Detmers was pulled from the game in favor of Wantz. The reliever couldn’t make a play on a routine grounder back to the mound for an error that eventually proved costly, as Wantz later surrendered a two-out, two-run triple to Kevin Kiermaier to tie the game.

“Wantz did a good job other than not fielding a ground ball,” Nevin said. “Obviously, the ball Kiermaier hit was big for them, too. There were just so many pivotal moments.”

The bullpen didn’t fare much better in the seventh, though, as Nevin noted, the Blue Jays were helped by Tepera hitting Bichette with a pitch to open the inning and by a few bloop hits, as Guerrero and Chapman dropped in back-to-back bloopers. Guerrero's single had an exit velocity of 65.9 mph and Chapman's left the bat at 68.3 mph.

Chapman’s hit provided the go-ahead run for Toronto, which tacked on another on a ground-ball single through the right side from Whit Merrifield.

Loup came in to relieve Tepera, but immediately gave up a double steal with one out. He then struck out Cavan Biggio and the Angels elected to walk pinch-hitter Alejandro Kirk to get to the left-handed hitting Kiermaier at the plate. Kiermaier dropped in a two-run single with an exit velocity of 66.9 mph to give the Blue Jays a four-run lead.

The Angels eventually came back to tie it, but they couldn’t overcome a two-run deficit in the 10th.

“There's a lot of things that are the difference in that game,” Nevin said. “But I like the fight in our team. If we play like that and do a lot of the good things we did, we’re going to win a heck of a lot of games.”