Angels drop series to Red Sox behind pitching, hitting struggles

ANAHEIM -- Angels manager Ron Washington often talks about the importance of excelling in every facet of the game in his pursuit of building a well-rounded team.

But for the Angels on Sunday, they struggled mightily in three key facets in an ugly 12-2 loss to the Red Sox at Angel Stadium. Right-hander Chase Silseth gave up three solo homers in the fourth inning, the bullpen didn’t fare any better and the offense was mostly non-existent as Los Angeles dropped to 5-4.

“When Silseth left the game we were still in it, but we just couldn’t shut them down,” Washington said. “And we couldn’t score any runs.”

Silseth was coming off a rough start against the Marlins that saw him surrender four runs (three earned) over just three innings but he was dealing with a blister that affected his velocity. His fastball was back around his normal range of 95 mph early, but dropped in the later innings, clocking in at an average of 93.7 mph on the afternoon.

“The finger is good, nothing wrong there,” Silseth said. “But it’s just early and I’m trying to work through things. I felt pretty good, but it just wasn’t coming out.”

It was a lack of command that hurt him in the third as he surrendered three solo homers. The first one came from David Hamilton, who started in place of the injured Trevor Story and connected on a 3-1 fastball above the zone for a solo shot to give the Red Sox an early lead.

Two batters later, Silseth served up a solo blast to Rafael Devers on a 2-2 splitter that was off the plate but left up. Tyler O’Neill followed with a homer of his own on a 2-2 sinker that was left near the middle of the plate. It marked the second time in the series the Angels surrendered three homers in an inning, as Griffin Canning also gave up three in the second inning of Friday’s 8-6 loss.

“The first guy, I got behind and left a letter-high fastball and he hit it out,” Silseth said. “The second one, I hung a split and that’s going to happen. And he got that one. I wish I could’ve had that split back. And then the third one, I think I was throwing too many fastballs and he handles the inside fastball and I didn’t get it in enough.”

Silseth, though, recovered and was able to get through five innings on 91 pitches. He struck out seven and walked two, all three hits he gave up being homers.

After Silseth departed, the Angels turned to reliever José Cisnero, who has struggled early and had another tough showing. Cisnero, who entered with a 9.00 ERA in three innings, began his outing by hitting O'Neill, walking Triston Casas and allowing an RBI single to Masataka Yoshida. After Cisnero struck out Enmanuel Valdez for the first out, the Angels brought in lefty long reliever José Suarez.

Suarez has also had a slow start, and things didn't get better when he served up a three-run blast to Reese McGuire on a first-pitch sinker over the heart of the plate that put the game away for the Red Sox. Suarez, who gave up five runs over 3 1/3 innings and has an 8.68 ERA in four appearances, departed in the eighth inning after loading the bases. Hard-throwing reliever Guillermo Zuñiga inherited the jam and allowed all three inherited runners to score without recording an out.

With Zuñiga unable to finish the inning, Washington called upon position player Miguel Sanó for his first career relief appearance. Sanó got the job done, getting Jarren Duran to swing through a “changeup” before getting him to ground to short to end the inning on a “curveball.”

The offense also couldn’t get much going for a second straight game, mustering just two runs on Sunday after their only two runs on Saturday came by way of an error. The Angels managed eight hits in the series finale but didn’t score until the eighth inning on a solo homer from Mike Trout, who leads the team with four home runs but only has four RBIs in nine games.

“Last night was a pitching duel and it took an error for us to score two runs, but today we put ourselves in some good positions but just haven’t been getting the hits,” Washington said. “But we're gonna keep grinding and keep battling because it will change.”