Ureña continues strong rookie campaign, but Halos' offense stays quiet

HOUSTON -- Walbert Ureña gave the Angels another good pitching performance on Wednesday night, but the offense couldn’t come through late.

The rookie right-hander allowed three runs on three hits with seven strikeouts in five innings in the Angels’ 3-2 loss to the Astros at Daikin Park.

He ranks second among qualified MLB rookies in opponents' batting average (.198) and ERA (2.80) and fifth in strikeouts (109). Ureña surrendered three runs or fewer for the seventh time in his last eight starts.

Ureña retired the first eight batters he faced, including five by strikeout, before Christian Vázquez hit a solo home run to left with two outs in the third.

The Astros tacked on two more runs in the fourth on a Jose Altuve RBI double and a Cam Smith sacrifice fly.

Ureña said he might have been opening up on his glove side too much following the third inning, which led to the Astros’ ability to get to him in the fourth.

Ureña relied mostly on a mix of changeups and sinkers. He threw 40 changeups, getting seven whiffs and four strikeouts on it, and 27 sinkers, with which he got two whiffs and one strikeout. Ureña threw 15 sweepers, which he got three whiffs on. In all, the right-hander got 14 whiffs out of 46 swings on 94 pitches.

“I thought he pitched well,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. “His stuff was really good again tonight. Just really, the ambush. Vázquez is a veteran guy ambushing the heater. He threw him one he could hit. The other one was a good piece of hitting. Altuve hit that changeup. So, I thought overall, Walby threw the ball good tonight.”

Ureña threw Altuve a changeup low and inside, but Altuve was able to get to it.

“Just trying to get it down,” Ureña said of the pitch to Altuve. “That changeup was nasty, but he hit it. I think that’s the pitch I might throw again, but he won that at bat.”

The Angels’ offense struggled to score on Wednesday night after scoring three runs on Tuesday night – all with two outs.

Denzer Guzman hit a two-run double in the fourth to give the Angels a 2-1 lead. The hit to left was grabbed by a fan, who reached over the fence. Fan interference was called initially by third base umpire Alfonso Márquez, and after the umpires conferenced, Josh Lowe, who was on first but running on the pitch, was allowed to score.

Other than Guzman’s hit, the Angels missed several opportunities, leaving runners in scoring position in the second, fourth, fifth and ninth innings, finishing 1-for-8 with eight runners left on base.

In the ninth, Travis d’Arnaud led off the inning with a walk against Houston closer Josh Hader, but pinch-runner Adam Frazier was stranded on third as Jose Siri flied out to the warning track in center to end the game.

“I guess the tale of two things, right?” Suzuki said. “Last night we got two-out hits, and tonight, that’s the one thing that alluded us. Just got to stay on it. … We just got to keep chugging along at it and keep working.”

The Angels had a scare in the third inning as Mike Trout was hit in the hand on a 93.1 mph sinker by Ethan Pecko.

Trout stayed in the game and finished 1-for-3. He said afterward that the hand ached, but it is something he’s been dealing with all season after being hit on the same hand two times before.

“It’s all right,” Trout said. “It is what it is. Three times this year the same kind of spot. Good thing I have the guard.”