Anderson, Halos come up short in Boston finale

BOSTON -- Tyler Anderson entered his start at Fenway Park on Sunday riding a 14-inning scoreless streak to start the season, but the Angels’ starter was only able to extend that to two more batters before Boston’s bats opened up against him.

On the heels of back-to-back home runs surrendered to Tyler O'Neill and Triston Casas in the opening frame, the Los Angeles hurler was felled for the first time this year as the club dropped the series finale of a three-game series against the Red Sox, 5-4.

“I thought he did a good job,” said manager Ron Washington of his starter. “He was a little off as far as his command goes compared to his last two outings.”

“I just felt like I wasn’t very crisp,” added Anderson, who moved to 2-1 on the year with a 1.47 ERA. “Not making great pitches.”

Anderson entered this matchup having allowed eight hits in his first two starts, with only two of those going for extra bases (both doubles). He had also only walked three batters in those first two outings.

By the end of his day on Sunday, which only lasted 4 1/3 innings, the left-hander doubled the number of walks allowed on the season and saw three extra-base hits go against him, each driving in runs.

Anderson did seem to lock in a bit after the first inning, allowing only a single and a walk from then until the fifth, when Pablo Reyes roped a double off the wall to plate Boston's third run, breaking a 2-2 tie and forcing Washington to go to his bullpen early.

“The one mistake I think he made, I’m not worried about the two home runs he gave up, that was early in the game so we had time to come back,” said Washington. “It was the one that [Reyes] hit off the wall. I think he’d like to have that one back. If he could have gotten out of that, I think it would have been a totally different ballgame.”

“Even the first inning, it just felt like I was falling behind a little bit too much,” said Anderson, who struck out four batters. “Not that there were a lot of bad pitches in the zone, just a little bit out of the zone, I felt like. Then working myself into counts and then not being crisp enough, I couldn’t land good pitches and they did a good job of a couple of mistakes in the middle, they put really good swings on. When I felt like I made really good pitches, it felt like they spoiled them, fouled them off or put them in play."

The Angels were able to put the heat on late, scoring a run in the eighth and then plating one more and rallying against Kenley Jansen in the ninth, but the Boston closer would get Mike Trout to strike out with runners on second and third to end the game.

Trout is now 1-for-12 with nine strikeouts in 13 plate appearances against the veteran Jansen in his career.

“We fought and we put ourselves in position to win the ballgame and we had the right guy up that we wanted,” said Washington. "Jansen got the best of that one.”

With the loss, the Angels dropped two of three in Boston, and they have now lost their last three series as they head to Tampa Bay for a four-game set starting on Monday.

“We’ve been working, we’ve been getting after it,” said Washington. “We just have to keep working until we get the results we are looking for. I do think we are going to get those results.”

A pair of big hits
In the top of the second inning, Brandon Drury hit a 382-foot solo homer into the Angels' bullpen in right field that was the 9,000th home run in franchise history.

Trout laced an eighth-inning triple to the wall in center field, giving him 54 for his career and moving him ahead of Chone Figgins into second place in franchise history. Jim Fregosi is the Angels’ all-time triples leader with 70.