HOUSTON -- For the first two games of the year and the first half of the third, the Angels looked like a much-improved team from recent seasons.
But after taking a 6-0 lead in the fifth inning on Saturday, the wheels completely fell off for the Angels, who committed three costly errors and saw the Astros score three times in the fifth and eight more times with two outs in the sixth in a disheartening 11-9 loss at Daikin Park. The Angels were aiming to be 3-0 for just the sixth time in franchise history, but had to settle for a 2-1 start despite another strong performance from the offense.
“Sometimes you have to give credit to the other team,” said manager Kurt Suzuki. “They put up some good at-bats. They were fouling a lot of pitches off and making adjustments.”
Left-hander Reid Detmers, returning to the rotation after pitching in relief last year, showed some promise early, striking out nine over 4 2/3 innings. He got ahead of his final hitter, Isaac Paredes, with an 0-2 count but gave up a two-run double on a hanging slider over the middle to end his outing after 95 pitches.
It turned out to be a pivotal pitch because if Detmers located it where he wanted to, it would’ve been a scoreless fifth with a clean runway for a reliever to take over in the sixth.
“I tried bouncing it,” Detmers said. “That’s the one pitch I’d like to have back. Other than that, it was a pretty solid day. But I would’ve liked to have gone deeper into the game to save the bullpen a little bit.”
The Angels went with rookie Walbert Urena, the club’s No. 19 prospect, per MLB Pipeline, to try to give them some length in his second career appearance, but it backfired. Urena gave up a run on an RBI single to Carlos Correa before third baseman Yoán Moncada made an error on a hard-hit grounder. Urena got out of the jam by getting Cam Smith to ground out to third to keep it a three-run game.
But Urena went back out for the sixth, and that’s when it really unraveled. With one out, Urena fielded a weakly hit grounder from Jake Meyers, but his throw to first baseman Nolan Schanuel was too close to the bag, and Schanuel couldn’t handle it for a throwing error charged to Urena.
He gave up a single to Joey Loperfido, but struck out Jose Altuve for the second out. Things got ugly from there, however, as Urena uncorked a wild pitch to bring home a run, intentionally walked Yordan Alvarez and walked Paredes to load the bases.
Urena got ahead of Correa with an 0-2 count, but Correa hit a little tapper in front of home plate, and catcher Logan O’Hoppe’s throw to first sailed past Schanuel to score two runs and tie the game at 6. It was already the third throwing error on the season for O’Hoppe, who made two errant throws on Friday.
O’Hoppe also could’ve simply stayed at home with Urena flipping it to him for a forceout to end the inning, but Suzuki understood his decision as a former catcher.
“I think Logan's first instinct is to go get the ball, which I agree with,” Suzuki said. “I asked him about it on the mound. I just told him I wouldn’t have been able to slide on my knees like that. I think a good throw gets him out. I haven’t watched it again, but in real time, it looked like he made a good play, but then threw it up the line. Just an aggressive mistake.”
It set up a go-ahead single to Christian Walker that hit off both Urena and second baseman Oswald Peraza’s glove. Lefty Joey Lucchese, who was signed to a one-year deal on Saturday, came in and walked Smith before giving up a two-run single to Yainer Diaz and a two-run double to Meyers that hit off Jo Adell’s glove as he tried to make a leaping catch in right field.
All told, Detmers was charged with three runs, Urena was tagged for six runs (none earned) over one inning and Lucchesi was charged with two runs while recording one out.
“At that moment, we felt like Urena gave us the best chance,” Suzuki said. “Just one of those nights with a couple swinging bunts and stuff like that. But credit to them. They put up some tough at-bats and made us work.”