ANAHEIM — The greatest run scorer in Angel Stadium history was doing his part, the testosterone-fueled portion of the fan base has added a new element and yet the Angels continue to come up empty.
A day after an energetic ninth-inning rally gave the Angels a walk-off win, they fell flat Tuesday in a 14-6 loss to the Athletics that was their seventh defeat in the past eight games. They have lost 22 of 28 games since their 11-10 start to the season.
Mike Trout hit a home run and boosted his runs scored record at Angel Stadium to an even 600. The offense even delivered more than two runs for the first time in eight games and just the second time in their past 11 contests.
But it still ended in another defeat that failed to appease the collection of bare-chested young fans in the left-field seats that twirled shirts over their heads for the second consecutive game while expressing the desire for an ownership change.
Angels left-hander Reid Detmers only allowed runs during one of his first five innings of work, but that six-run third inning spelled doom. Detmers (1-5) ended up allowing a career-high eight runs over 5⅔ innings on eight hits with two walks and eight strikeouts.
Detmers’ return to the rotation this season has had its moments, but his struggles Tuesday left him with a 5.07 ERA on the season.
“I left a couple of pitches over the plate (with) a lot of soft contact,” Detmers said. “It’s kind of been the story of the year so far. Yeah, they put a lot of balls in play and found some holes.”
The A’s sent 10 batters to the plate in the third inning and received two runs on a Colby Thomas double, two more on a single from Zack Gelof and single runs on base hits from Nick Kurtz and Brent Rooker. It was the 14th consecutive game the Angels (17-32) have watched their opponent score the first run.
All six runs in the third inning came home with two outs. The two runs Detmers was charged with in the sixth also scored with two outs. By the time the game was over, the A’s scored 12 of their runs with two outs.
“I felt like maybe a couple of those pitches (in the third inning) were offspeed up in the zone,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. “They snuck it over the infield and hit it in front of the outfielders. For the most part, I think he minimized hard contact. It was definitely a tough inning.”
Detmers said no mechanical adjustments were needed to get back on track with scoreless innings in the fourth and fifth, with Suzuki noting there might have been a slight dip in velocity that was short-lived.
“This is not an easy game and nothing is going to be easy and nothing is going to be smooth,” Detmers said of his return to the rotation. “There are going to be ups and downs with everything, and that’s hitting and pitching. If I was in the bullpen last year, had a good year and came back, that’s not going to be easy. You just have to deal with it, get better and keep improving.”
Undaunted after the Angels trailed early, Trout pushed a home run into the seats in right-center in the bottom of the third, his team-best 12th of the season. The flash of power made him just the 58th player in major league history to score at least 600 runs in a single stadium.
Trout’s 43rd career home run against the A’s tied him with Rafael Palmeiro and Alex Rodriguez for the most since the franchise first moved to Oakland in 1968 before relocating to Sacramento last season.
Trout even got some help in the fourth inning, when the Angels loaded the bases with two outs and the three-time American League MVP worked a walk to cut the deficit to 6-2. Vaughn Grissom made it 6-4 when he followed with a two-run double.
Grissom’s hit gave the Angels more than two runs in a game since a 6-1 victory at Toronto on May 10.
“We’ve been really focusing on battling with two strikes,” Suzuki said. “Not just put the ball in play but put some good swings on some pitches and not try to do too much. I thought they did a nice job tonight. They got some big hits with two strikes, and it was definitely nice to see.”
Any hopes of completing a comeback were dashed when the A’s piled it on in the late innings. Kurtz had a two-run single off Jose Fermin in the sixth, with both runs charged to Detmers.
Gelof hit a home run against Ryan Johnson in the seventh before the A’s added four more runs off Johnson in the eighth. Kurtz had a two-run double and Rooker hit a two-run home run. Darell Hernaiz had an RBI single in the ninth for the A’s 14th run. Gelof had three hits.
The Angels added two runs in the eighth inning when Josh Lowe poked a double just over the head of Gelof at third base to score Nolan Schanuel and Logan O’Hoppe.