ARLINGTON -- Adolis García has a Gold Glove Award to his name. He often roams right field in ballparks across the league, making even the hardest plays as opposing offenses fear his cannon of an arm.

But on Friday night at Globe Life Field, as García camped under a routine pop fly off the bat of Angels infielder Kyren Paris in the fourth inning, the unthinkable happened -- he dropped the ball. As the outfielder raised his glove to catch the ball, he appeared to go for the transfer well before it landed in the webbing.

“It’s been a little sloppy lately,” manager Bruce Bochy said of the outfield defense. “It hasn’t been like that all year, but it is something that we do have to clean up a little bit. We have to tighten things up here. We're a good team defensively. We’re a good team in the outfield. But it hasn’t been what we normally are.”

The run didn’t score, as Rangers starter Andrew Heaney and reliever Grant Anderson induced two flyouts to end the inning, but that one play was a microcosm of Texas’ 9-3 loss to the Angels on Friday.

Even more so, the entire game -- a perfect storm in the worst way possible -- was a fitting illustration of the club’s recent rough stretch, which included a sweep at the hands of the last-place Rockies and a series loss to the Guardians.

The Rangers -- typically a defensively sound team -- collected two more official errors in addition to García’s in right field, and even had a few mental ones as well.

“The off-day didn’t serve us well,” Bochy said. “That’s unlike us to make three errors there. It’s just an off night there, that’s all I can tell you.”

The pitching staff, which has been focused on pounding the zone and succeeding more than ever as of late, allowed too many deep counts as the Angels battled all night long.

Heaney had been riding one of his hottest stretches as a Ranger until facing his former team on Friday. He was lifted after just 3 2/3 innings and 83 pitches. His pitch count by inning was: 1st (15), 2nd (27), 3rd (24), 4th (17).

Entering the day, Heaney had posted a 2.00 ERA over his last three starts, lowering his season ERA from 6.26 to 4.39. The southpaw had made four consecutive starts without issuing a walk, becoming the first pitcher in franchise history to make four straight starts of five or more innings pitched without issuing a free pass. His walkless streak came to an end at 29 innings after issuing a one-out walk to Jo Adell in the second inning.

“He really pitched better than what it looked like,” Bochy said. “[He gave up] just two earned runs. Pitches caught up with him more than anything. I didn’t want to push him too much there. But he had some bad luck more than anything. His stuff was pretty good. It just got away from us as the game went on.”

Heaney, on the other hand, wasn’t as complimentary of his own outing.

“I’ve been good the last four or five times out, this time was just [bad],” he said. "I’ll try not to do that anymore. … Sometimes you just don’t have your best [stuff]. I kind of just felt like the tempo was bad, the rhythm was bad, just kind of missing spots. Just one of those nights where I couldn’t get it cleaned up, couldn’t work into a rhythm.”

The Rangers have now lost nine of their last 16 games. They have never been below .500 in the Bruce Bochy era. At 23-23, they are dangerously close to that reality. To avoid that, they’ll also have to overcome their biggest Achilles' heel so far this season: hitting left-handed pitching as they gear up to face Patrick Sandoval on Saturday.

The Rangers are 14th in batting average (.245), 21st in slugging (.365) and 22nd in OPS (.663) against left-handed pitchers this season. Angels lefty Tyler Anderson held them to one run on two hits over seven innings Friday.

“We are having tough times against left-handers,” Bochy said of those struggles. “Keep battling, that’s all you can do. We’ll figure out these lefties.”

“I don't have a theory on it to be honest,” he added later. “[We’re] a team that I think will hit left-handers. I know, to this point, we haven't done a lot against them but I think our lefties hit lefties. And we just have not been consistent against them. We’ve had a few good innings, but overall numbers are [not] very good against them.”