OC Register: Angels blow early 5-run lead in loss to Rangers

[AngelsWin.com]

ARLINGTON, Texas — Shohei Ohtani and Jared Walsh, the Angels’ All-Stars who went into parallel slumps throughout much of the second half, are finishing strong.

Ohtani had a double and a triple and Walsh had three hits in the Angels’ 7-6 loss to the Texas Rangers on Thursday afternoon.

They had five of the Angels’ 12 hits on a day that they scored five runs in the top of the first, but lost. Alex Cobb gave up five runs and Jimmy Herget, who had a one-run lead in the eighth, gave up two runs on a Brock Holt double.

Angels pitchers couldn’t hold a lead that was built mostly by Ohtani and Walsh.

Ohtani tripled in the first, driving in his 99th run of the season. He doubled in the sixth and barely missed a game-tying home run in the ninth.

Ohtani is now hitting .311 (14 for 45) in his last 14 games, coming out of a slump that was long enough to prompt some discussion about whether he had cost himself the MVP.

Walsh is now hitting .340 (34 for 100) since Aug. 28, the result of an approach to use the whole field after he’d gotten too pull heavy in August. All three of his hits on Thursday were to left field.

Despite the nice offensive day, the Angels’ pitchers couldn’t do their part, starting with Cobb.

Cobb worked around four baserunners in the first two innings, but in the third he got two outs before issuing a walk, giving up a single and allowing a three-run homer to DJ Peters.

In the fifth, Cobb gave up a two-run homer to Adolis Garcia.

Cobb had allowed just one run in 10-2/3 innings in his two starts since coming off the injured list, lowering his ERA to 3.46 and putting him in position to head to free agency on a high note.

His 18th and final start, though, lifted his ERA to 3.76.

More to come on this story.

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[eligrba]

Have the Angels checked all of the boxes this year to qualify as a nightmare?

[Angel Oracle]

Fletcher’s hitting nightmare is worthy of a Stephen King novel.

[greginpsca]

Three losses to Seattle might get us the 10th pick in the draft. That said, they will probably win 2-3 and get the 12th pick.

[ukyah]

the angels bullpen is the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked.

[eligrba]

6 minutes ago, ukyah said:

the angels bullpen is the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked.