CINCINNATI -- With the Angels falling out of contention with their recent slide that began leading up to the Trade Deadline, much of the rest of the season will be about getting their young players experience that can help them going forward.

Rookie left-hander Jose Suarez has continued to get an extended look, and while he struggled yet again in an 8-4 loss to the Reds on Tuesday, it’s all part of the learning process for the 21-year-old prospect. It was the sixth straight loss for the Angels, who fell to 56-59, and the seventh straight outing without a win for Suarez, who has a 7.12 ERA over that span.

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"He showed signs," Angels manager Brad Ausmus said. "We're not going to rush to judgment on a 21-year-old's first season in the big leagues."

Suarez did go five innings for the first time since June 20, snapping a streak of five straight outings without reaching five frames, but he surrendered six runs on 10 hits, including three homers. He dropped to 2-3 with a 6.22 ERA in 10 career starts.

Suarez was handed an early 3-0 lead thanks to a three-run shot from Justin Upton off Anthony DeSclafani in the first, but Suarez coughed up the lead in a hurry. He gave up a solo homer to Eugenio Suarez on a 3-2 changeup in the bottom of the zone, before allowing a two-run shot to Jose Iglesias on a 1-1 changeup down and in.

"My pitches weren’t working in my first and second inning," Suarez said through an interpreter. "I kept wanting to throw them for strikes, but I couldn’t really locate them."

Both homers came with two outs, which is something Suarez needs to improve, as seven of the 14 homers that he's given up this year have come with two outs.

Suarez settled down a bit after the first, but endured a rocky fourth inning that saw Aristides Aquino open the frame with a homer on a 1-1 fastball that caught too much of the plate. Suarez had trouble with two outs again, as the Angels intentionally walked Tucker Barnhart to get to DeSclafani, but the pitcher came through with an RBI single. Nick Senzel followed with a bloop RBI single to left.

“A lot of times they were sitting breaking ball,” Suarez said. “I tried to throw them the way I wanted to, but I kept putting them in the zone. They weren’t breaking like I wanted them to.”

Suarez hit for himself in the fifth and got through the fifth, pitching around a one-out single from Aquino. The southpaw threw 91 pitches, getting just five swings and misses, with three coming on his fastball and two on his changeup. Suarez has been working to improve his curve, which he threw 21 times, but didn’t get any swings and misses with it, so it’s clear that it’s still a work in progress.

"He got some foul ball strikes with it,” Ausmus said. “But not quite as sharp as last time. It's something he has to continue to throw."

As for the home runs, Ausmus said that he hasn’t found a common thread for that issue with Suarez. The lefty has allowed at least one homer in nine of his 10 starts.

"I don't know that it's one particular reason or one particular pitch,” Ausmus said. “Today, it was a couple of changeups and a fastball out over. So I don't think it's one pitch. It's probably location on particular pitches."

Trout hits homer No. 38

Mike Trout has continued to keep pace with the Brewers’ Christian Yelich and the Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger for the most homers hit in the Majors this year. Trout smacked his 38th homer of the year with a solo shot off DeSclafani in the fifth. It moved Trout one behind Yelich for the MLB lead, while the Angels’ slugger passed Bellinger with the blast that went a projected 412 feet to left-center, per Statcast.

“It’s pretty cool with Yelich and Bellinger,” Trout said. “They are all having great seasons, MVP seasons. It’s fun to watch. Fun to be a part of.”