The highs and lows of 'disappointing' series vs. Rox

DENVER -- They say the sequel is never as good as the original.

That certainly held true for the Angels on Sunday, as they couldn’t replicate their historic performance on Saturday night that saw them set club records for runs (25), hits (28) and margin of victory (24). Instead, they went 2-for-6 with runners in scoring position and left six runners on base in a 4-3 loss to the Rockies in the series finale at Coors Field.

The Angels outscored the Rockies by a 32-12 margin in the three-game set but came away with a frustrating series loss, especially after going 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and blowing a late lead in the eighth inning on Friday. In doing so, the Angels became the second club all-time to lose a series with a run differential of +20 or better, joining the 1897 Chicago Colts, who outscored the Louisville Colonels 45-22 but lost two of three in the series.

But they do leave Colorado with better infield depth, after acquiring veterans Eduardo Escobar and Mike Moustakas via trades on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

Now, they head home for a stretch of 21 straight games in which they don’t leave Southern California.

“It’s just baseball, it’s crazy the way it works sometimes,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said. “We had a big night offensively last night. But we left too many out there on Friday and we left too many out there today. That’s why we’re 1-2.”

After their epic showing on Saturday, the Angels figured to keep it rolling against lefty Austin Gomber, who entered with a 7.25 ERA in 15 starts this year. But Gomber kept them off-balance and they didn’t score until the sixth inning, with the lefty pitching well enough to pick up the first win by a Rockies starting pitcher since May 23, a span of more than a month (Gomber was also the winning pitcher in that game).

“I think it’s disappointing,” said Taylor Ward about the series loss. “We should’ve definitely done a better job and won more games here. Hopefully this fires us up and we take that into tomorrow.”

Ward led off the sixth with a double off Gomber before Shohei Ohtani ripped an RBI triple to left to get the Angels on the board. After Mike Trout was hit by a pitch, the Rockies brought in reliever Jake Bird, who got Brandon Drury to fly out for a sacrifice fly before Hunter Renfroe grounded into an inning-ending double play.

“I know what the numbers said coming in [about Gomber], but he’s a big leaguer, and when you look at his stuff, if he locates pitches, he’s going to be effective,” Nevin said. “We really didn’t make any hard contact until that sixth inning. And then they went to their bullpen, and they have some good arms.”

The Angels never had the lead in the game, as left-hander Tyler Anderson gave up three runs on four hits and two walks over six innings with a season-high nine strikeouts. He gave up a run in the first on a sacrifice fly from Elias Díaz after issuing a walk and giving up a single.

Anderson surrendered another run on a sac fly in the fourth before serving up a solo shot to Ezequiel Tovar in the fifth. But he was able to get through six innings to get the quality start and kept the Angels in the game.

“Overall it was good, but especially in this place, you don’t want to walk guys -- and I was hurt by two walks because they both scored,” said Anderson, who pitched with the Rockies from 2016-19. “Otherwise, we might win that game 3-2 there.”

Their biggest chances to get back in came in the eighth and the ninth innings, after the Rockies tacked on a run in the seventh keyed by a throwing error from reliever José Soriano on a pickoff attempt to Renfroe at first base.

No. 9 hitter David Fletcher led off the eighth with a four-pitch walk to get to the top of the lineup against reliever Daniel Bard. But Ward struck out swinging before Ohtani lifted a high fly ball to right field for the second out. Trout worked a 3-1 count but grounded out to third base on a nice play from Ryan McMahon in the shallow outfield grass, a call that was confirmed upon review.

With the Angels down to their last out in the ninth, Escobar kept their hopes alive with a triple and scored on a double from Mickey Moniak. But after Matt Thaiss was intentionally walked, Luis Rengifo grounded out to end it.

“I think it just showed the fight in our team,” Ward said. “We’ve had a few comeback victories like that. I was hoping for one there, and the team was, too. But I think it just shows the fight we have.”