MONTERREY, Mexico -- It ended with yet another lopsided score in a 10-4 loss to the Astros on Sunday in the finale of the Mexico Series at Estadio de Beisbol Monterrey, but it was a key decision from Angels manager Brad Ausmus in the fifth inning that ended up doing the most damage.
Despite throwing only 57 pitches, Ausmus elected to remove Matt Harvey after he loaded the bases with two outs in the fifth and the Angels clinging to a 3-2 lead.
Ausmus instead opted to bring in reliever Cam Bedrosian, as Astros third baseman Alex Bregman was just 1-for-11 against the right-hander coming into the game. Bregman also hit a deep fly ball against Harvey in his previous at-bat, which was likely fresh in Ausmus' mind. But the decision backfired, as Bedrosian served up a go-ahead grand slam to Bregman on a 2-0 fastball that caught too much of the plate.
“Obviously his pitch count was down, but it seemed like the Astros were getting good swings on him," Ausmus said. "We had a completely fresh bullpen. We could use everyone down there, with an off-day tomorrow. At the time I got Cam up, there was a runner at first. It ended up being bases loaded, but that was the thought process."
Ausmus has made it no secret that he prefers his starters to avoid facing a lineup a third time through, and he’s leaned heavily on his relievers to escape jams, even early in games. Harvey, though, was coming off two solid outings. He limited the Yankees to two runs over six innings on April 22, and then he gave up just one run over a season-high seven frames against the Royals on April 28.
So that’s why the decision surprised Harvey, who wanted a chance to get out of the jam he created.
"It was [surprising], but that's his call," Harvey said. "That's why he's the manager and I'm one of the players. It's up to him. Obviously, with as little pitches as I had, I wish I could've at least tried to get out of that fifth inning with the bases loaded. But it's his call."
Harvey scuffled early, giving up a second-inning two-run homer to Carlos Correa on an 0-2 fastball as part of a stretch in which he surrendered four straight hits. Though he induced a key double play later that inning and appeared to be settling down.
In the fifth, Harvey plunked Robinson Chirinos with one out and gave up a two-out single to George Springer before walking Jose Altuve. That’s when Ausmus decided to yank Harvey and go with Bedrosian, who was riding a scoreless streak of 9 1/3 innings with 11 strikeouts. That run met its demise with the grand slam to dead center, with Harvey responsible for three of those runs.
"I'm trying to stay away from him right there," Bedrosian said of the pitch location. "It's 2-0, so in my mind, I'm trying to throw him a strike, but a competitive strike, so I'm trying to get it away. But it came a little bit in, and he hit it in the air and it just goes out here."
Harvey was charged with five runs on five hits over 4 2/3 innings and saw his ERA rise to 6.94. He struck out just one, which has been an issue for him this year with 22 strikeouts in 36 1/3 innings.
“I watched a little bit of video and it looked like I was kind of flying open a bit,” Harvey said. “It's kind of a minor adjustment. I wish I could have done it during the game. But unfortunately this happened pretty quick. I was feeling all right, was getting some outs, but something just wasn't quite right.”
The grand slam spoiled three homers from the Angels off veteran right-hander Justin Verlander, including two from Jonathan Lucroy. David Fletcher hit a leadoff homer in the first, before Lucroy connected on a two-run shot in the second. The Halos didn’t score again until the seventh, when Lucroy hit a solo dinger to right field for his ninth career multihomer game, and his first since 2016.
But Lucroy noted it's hard to enjoy the homers when your team loses by a combined score of 24-6 in two defeats to first-place Houston in Mexico.
"Individually, it was great, but it kind of was overshadowed by us getting our butts kicked for the second day in a row," Lucroy said. "I think we gotta do everything better. We gotta pitch better, play defense better, hit better. I think it’s all encompassing from every aspect of our game. We’ve gotta be better to beat them. We gotta figure it out. We gotta get it done.”