ARLINGTON -- It’s become a familiar, yet troubling theme for the Angels, as their starters have struggled to pitch deep into games. That was again the case with right-hander Matt Harvey failing to get out of the fifth inning in a 5-4 loss to the Rangers on Wednesday night at Globe Life Park that sealed a three-game sweep.

In the Angels’ 18 games, no starter has gone deeper than 6 1/3 innings and they’ve had only seven starts of at least five innings with Trevor Cahill accounting for three of those outings. Harvey looked like he was on his way to a solid start against the Rangers, but it started to show slight signs of unraveling in the fourth before it came apart in the fifth.

“He was good early, very efficient and effective,” Angels manager Brad Ausmus said. “I don’t know if he just ran out of gas or it was a command issue, but yeah, it turned quickly.”

Staked to a 2-0 lead, Harvey faced the minimum through three frames, but issued a leadoff walk to Shin-Soo Choo to open the fourth. An errant pickoff throw got away from Justin Bour with the error charged to Harvey. He nearly escaped the jam after inducing a grounder to second with two outs, only to see second baseman Tommy La Stella make a costly error to allow a run to score.

Harvey came back out for the fifth, but quickly surrendered three consecutive hits to start the frame, including singles from Asdrubal Cabrera and Logan Forsythe and a game-tying RBI single from Isiah Kiner-Falefa before Delino DeShields bunted over both baserunners.

Choo stayed hot with a two-run triple down the right-field line that knocked Harvey from the game after 4 1/3 innings. Reliever Ty Buttrey came in to stop the damage, but gave up an RBI double to Danny Santana with the run getting charged to Harvey.

"I was able to locate pitches in the first four and then I hung a slider to Cabrera and then the same thing to Forsythe,” Harvey said. “Made a couple good pitches that were just up a little bit. Choo hit one down the line. That's baseball. Things just aren't really going my way right now. Other times he may take it or it might go foul. But right now, things are going the wrong way.”

It ended up being another rough line for Harvey, who was charged with five runs (four earned) on five hits and a walk over 4 1/3 innings, which actually lowered his ERA to 9.64 in four outings. Harvey was solid in his first start, allowing two runs in six innings against the A's, but since then he's allowed 18 earned runs in his last 12 1/3 innings.

Harvey, though, said he remains confident he’ll turn it around and said he can lean on those first four innings as proof that things are getting better. His fastball velocity remains strong, as he maxed out at 95.3 mph and averaged 93.8 mph on the night, per Statcast, but said he needs to get better at locating his pitches, especially pitches up in the zone like Choo's two-run triple.

"I think the first four innings show it's right there, but things aren't clicking on the same cylinder at the same time,” Harvey said. “It's frustrating, but I have to keep working and push through it."

Late rally falls short

The Angels loaded the bases with nobody out in the ninth against closer Jose Leclerc but couldn't complete a late comeback. Bour struck out looking on a ball that appeared to be outside, and was ejected by home-plate umpire Jeremie Rehak.

“I’ll put it this way, I’ve never been thrown out of a baseball game in my entire career and it just seems like it happens and happens and happens, and nothing happens,” Bour said of missed calls. “There’s obviously no accountability. You’re grinding. Mike [Trout] has a great at-bat. Clearly, he’s all over the place, trying to put it together and then to get rung up on a call like that, it’s obviously very frustrating.”

Andrelton Simmons grounded out to third to bring home a run before Brian Goodwin struck out swinging on a check swing to end it. Ausmus agreed with Bour’s assertion that the 1-2 pitch was off the plate and was a major factor in hampering the potential rally.

“It looked like a ball to me,” Ausmus said. “I thought he had a legitimate gripe, especially in a situation like that where the game’s on the line.”