OC Register: Angels come up short in sloppy loss to Twins

[AngelsWin.com]

ANAHEIM — Angels manager Ron Washington talks often about how the team is still “learning how to win.”

It’s not like this.

The Angels made a handful of critical mistakes that proved to be just enough to cost them in a 5-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Friday night.

The Angels (10-16) have now lost seven of their last eight games.

At the plate, they didn’t even manage a hit against Bailey Ober until the sixth inning, when they were already down by four runs. They had opportunities in the sixth and eighth innings, but only Nolan Schanuel managed to drive in any runs, with a groundout and a single.

Mike Trout, who is now 2 for 22 with runners in scoring position this season, struck out on a check swing when he was up with two on in the sixth. He walked on four pitches when he came up in the eighth, with first base open. He grounded out in the ninth to end it, when he was representing the winning run.

After Trout’s walk in the eighth, both Taylor Ward and Ehire Adrianza – who replaced Miguel Sanó, presumably after his sore knee acted up – were called out looking at third strikes.

The Angels also made defensive mistakes on Friday. There appeared to be a miscommunication between Trout and right fielder Jo Adell in the sixth, allowing a ball to drop and leading to a run.

Catcher Logan O’Hoppe dropped a pop-up, but the Angels erased that mistake by turning their third double play of the game. O’Hoppe also had a passed ball.

Left-hander Patrick Sandoval, who is often the victim of poor defense by his teammates, made his own errant pickoff throw in the third inning, leading to an unearned run.

Sandoval was charged with four runs, three earned, in 5⅔ innings. Although he avoided big innings and kept the Angels in the game, it was not a clean outing.

Sandoval fell behind with a first-pitch ball to 13 of the 24 of the hitters, with contributed to him allowing nine hits.

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Sandoval gave up a second-inning homer to Carlos Santana, and then solid two-out RBI singles Byron Buxton in the third and Ryan Jeffers in the fifth. Both came on hanging sliders.

The sixth-inning run, which extended the Twins’ lead to 4-0, scored after José Miranda’s fly ball into right-center turned into a double. Trout seemed to be calling for the ball, but as the two got closer Trout pulled back, and the ball then hit Adell in the leg and dropped.

Normally reliable left-hander Matt Moore gave up a run in the ninth, just after the Angels had cut the lead to two, after he issued two walks.

One of the bright spots was the play of shortstop Zach Neto, who made some nice defensive plays and also had two doubles among his three hits. Neto has eight hits in his last 13 at-bats, with three doubles and a homer.

More to come on this story.

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