HOUSTON -- Scoring runs was the Angels' biggest problem during their 11-game losing streak to the Astros, which ended on Thursday night with a 2-0 win. The Angels scored two runs or fewer in five of the seven games they have played at Minute Maid Park this season.
"We didn't swing the bats really well, but we played good defense and pitched really well," manager Mike Scioscia said of Thursday's victory. "We've had trouble scoring runs in this park. I don't know if there's any rhyme or reason to it."
The Angels scored both of their runs on Thursday with one swing, on Albert Pujols' two-run homer in the first inning. Houston starter Mike Fiers retired 12 Angels in a row after the first.
Los Angeles managed only five hits all night, struck out 11 times and went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.
The Crawford Boxes, the seats above the hand-operated scoreboard at Minute Maid Park just 315 down the left-field line, can be a tempting target for right-handed hitters, occasionally to their detriment.
"I don't think it's one particular thing," Mike Trout said of the Angels' offensive problems in Houston. "We don't change our [hitting] approach. When we get guys in scoring position, we have to drive them in."
Scioscia discounted the field, with its huge center field 436 feet from home, as a factor.
"The dimensions are unusual," he said. "We've played enough here to get used to it. We just haven't done what we need to do."