CINCINNATI -- It was the best start of right-hander José Soriano’s young career, but it was marred by a costly error with two outs in the sixth inning from second baseman Luis Rengifo, who has been struggling with his defense recently.

Soriano struck out a career-high seven batters over six innings but was saddled with three unearned runs in a 3-0 loss to the Reds on Sunday afternoon at Great American Ball Park. The offense was also nearly non-existent for the Angels, who were swept in three games and have dropped four in a row, scoring one run or fewer in three of those losses.

“You saw what Soriano was doing out there, but then you don’t handle the baseball and the next thing you know they have three runs,” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “We made a mistake. That was a third out. The ball wasn’t handled and then they scored three runs. So no doubt about it, we need to handle the baseball. And we’ve got to put some runs on the board. We need to start supplying some offense for our pitchers.”

Soriano, making his third career start after pitching in relief last year and long relief early this season, was dominant and opened with 5 1/3 hitless innings.

He was efficient and got ahead of hitters, as he threw 71 pitches through five innings and threw first-pitch strikes to 20 of the 25 total batters he faced. His elite stuff was also on display, although his velocity was down a tick. His four-seamer still touched 100.2 mph and averaged 98.2 mph -- down from his yearly average of 99.4 -- while he threw his knuckle curve 36 times. His curve was effective, as it registered eight called strikes and seven swings and misses.

“I felt great,” Soriano said through interpreter Manny Del Campo. “Pretty much every pitch was working, especially the curveball.”

Soriano pitched into the sixth inning for the first time in his starting career, and began it by striking out Will Benson on a curveball for the first out. But Soriano gave up his first hit on an infield single to the speedy Elly De La Cruz on a first-pitch fastball.

Soriano recovered to get Spencer Steer to line out to right field for the second out and looked like he was going to get out of the inning when he got Nick Martini to hit a grounder to Rengifo at second base. But Rengifo couldn’t handle it, and the ball went into right field for his second error in as many days. Rengifo also made a throwing error in the first inning of Saturday’s 7-5 loss before lefty Patrick Sandoval gave up a grand slam.

“Everybody makes errors, it’s part of the game, but I have to be better and make the play next time,” Rengifo said. “I still have to stay positive every time I play. The only thing I can do is do my job and be better.”

Washington acknowledged Rengifo has had a rough showing defensively recently but said the Angels are constantly working to try to help him get through it.

“He’s struggling, but we’re out there every day working,” Washington said. “Sometimes you get into those types of situations. Just like you struggle offensively with your rhythm, sometimes it’s on the defensive side.”

Soriano then gave up a two-run double to Christian Encarnacion-Strand on an 0-2 curveball that caught too much of the zone. Soriano was trying to bury the pitch for a strikeout, but he left it up and Encarnacion-Strand took advantage.

“I was trying to throw it a little bit lower, but things happen,” Soriano said. “I missed and wanted to throw it lower and that’s what happens. It’s baseball.”

Four pitches later, after falling behind Jeimer Candelario on a 2-1 count, Soriano surrendered an RBI triple on a 93.4 mph splitter near the middle of the zone. Mike Trout tried to make a running catch at the wall but couldn’t quite make the play and crashed into it hard. Trout, though, was OK and remained in the game.

Soriano escaped further trouble by striking out Tyler Stephenson to strand Candelario at third base, but the damage was already done. The Angels couldn’t get anything going offensively despite right-hander Frankie Montas coming out of his start after recording just two outs after being hit in the right elbow on a comebacker from Taylor Ward.

“It shouldn’t present a challenge,” Washington said of Cincinnati’s bullpen game. “We’ve certainly got to do a better job on the offensive side. Everybody wants to talk about pitching, but our pitching is keeping us in ballgames. We just haven't been scoring enough runs to do anything with it.”