Tyler twirls 5 scoreless on a quiet night for Angels' bats

ANAHEIM -- When shortstop David Fletcher was unable to make a diving stop on a ground ball hit by his brother, Dominic, the Angels had run out of escape plans.

On a night when left-hander Tyler Anderson delivered his second scoreless outing in an Angels uniform, a lack of offense and a double dose of bad luck were costly in a 3-1 defeat against the D-backs.

• Game Story: Rendon cracks his second homer of the year ▶️

The Angels’ losing streak was extended to a season-long four games.

Anderson had just wiggled out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth inning on consecutive strikeouts to protect a one-run lead before the bullpen was unable to pull off a similar high-wire act.

The D-backs broke through in the sixth against reliever Sam Bachman when Dominic Fletcher’s ground ball ticked off the glove of his brother for a run and Anthony Rendon’s throwing error at third base accounted for another run to provide all the scoring Arizona would need.

Arizona tacked on, anyway, with an RBI triple from Jake McCarthy in the seventh inning.

“You know, game of inches, if you want to call it that,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said. “But right there, we’re out of the inning. He gets the ground ball. Actually, he gets two [ground balls] in a row to finish the inning, and it just doesn’t work out.”

Anderson was not dominant, by any means. He needed 92 pitches to get through five innings. He did not allow a run, though, to provide a reminder of his first start in an Angels uniform on April 2, when he went six scoreless against the A’s.

“Obviously, you want to put up zeros as often as you can and as many zeros as you can,” Anderson said. “For me, though, you take the scoreless outing, but really you also learn from that -- like, ‘Hey, I have to go out there and throw strike one more often and get ahead.’”

Anderson walked two with three strikeouts and continued his recent mastery over the D-backs. Counting his four starts against them last season as a member of the Dodgers, Anderson has a 0.58 ERA against the NL West foe in 31 innings over the past two years.

Bachman was unable to match Anderson. With a 1-0 lead, the right-hander gave up a single to Emmanuel Rivera on his sixth pitch. He then hit Gabriel Moreno on the left arm to put two aboard before getting McCarthy on a strikeout and Nick Ahmed on a forceout.

But David Fletcher couldn’t corral Dominic’s grounder into the hole as the D-backs tied it. Ketel Marte’s hard ground ball to third found its way into Rendon’s glove before the veteran third baseman threw wide to first base, allowing another run to score.

“Maybe the throw was rushed, you’d have to ask him, but he’s a tremendous third baseman,” Nevin said. “He’s made some mistakes with throws, but it’s not because he’s not working, it’s not because he’s not focused. Those things happen. He let it go from down here [sidearm] and it sailed on him.”

Rendon gave the Angels a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning with his second home run of the season and first since May 7. He missed two weeks in between with a wrist injury, returning Friday.

Rendon’s home run was the Angels’ lone run against D-backs rookie starter Ryne Nelson in 7 1/3 innings. Nelson allowed three hits. The Angels worked two walks in the ninth to bring the go-ahead run to the plate before Hunter Renfroe struck out against right-hander Scott McGough.

“We talk about being aggressive, and we have a ton of first-pitch hits this year,” Nevin said. “Then when you have a game when you have six, I believe, first-pitch outs, you can look at it and say, ‘Well, it’s frustrating.’ But if we get hits on those …”