ANAHEIM — The ballpark was full, runs were at a premium and when a cool breeze worked its way through the stadium in the late innings Saturday night, there was the slightest hint of October.
The Angels have a long way to go before tasting the postseason for the first time since 2014, but they look determined to climb the mountain. Finding that finishing kick will take some work.
With the Angels’ resurgent offense held in check, left-hander Yusei Kikuchi kept the suspense alive with his best outing of the season so far in a 4-1 loss to the San Diego Padres.
After making a mechanical tweak in his delivery, Kikuchi gave up four hits over six scoreless innings and allowed one walk while matching a season high with eight strikeouts.
“You look back at it, and all these (recent opponents) are going to be going for the playoffs,” first-year Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. “In New York, we had the lead in the ninth (inning) every game. We played the Padres tough tonight and beat them last night. In (Cincinnati), two out of three.
“I think they’re playing great baseball. Sometimes, at the end of the game, you’re running through some tough luck and things happen.”
Just like in two of the Angels’ losses in New York earlier in the week, the bullpen sprang a leak. After Jordan Romano blew two save opportunities against the Yankees, right-hander Ryan Zeferjahn gave up two runs in the eighth that ended a scoreless duel.
Suzuki was trying to get a second inning out of Zeferjahn after he followed Kikuchi with a scoreless seventh.
An Angels offense that averaged eight runs over the past five games was held to six hits.
Kikuchi was much improved after ditching his early-season strategy to raise his arm angle in his delivery. He carried a 7.50 ERA into the game over his first 18 innings after he had a 3.99 ERA over 33 starts (178⅓ innings) last season.
“This season, my arm angle was a little higher than usual but I brought it down a little bit, so that worked out perfectly,” Kikuchi said through an interpreter about the changes he made since a road start against the Yankees on Monday when he gave up four runs on four hits with four walks in a season-low 3⅓ innings.
Asked if he realized his velocity hit a season-high 99 mph on Saturday, Kikuchi didn’t even wait for a translation and answered in English.
“I did know,” he said.
Padres veteran right-hander German Marquez, who has struggled with injuries over the past four seasons, gave up two hits over 5⅔scoreless innings and allowed two walks with five strikeouts.
Zeferjahn (1-1) handcuffed himself when he opened the eighth inning with walks to Freddy Fermin and Jake Cronenworth. Ramon Laureano followed with a slow-rolling single to center for a 1-0 lead, and Fernando Tatis Jr. made it 2-0 on an even slower rolling single to right.
“We obviously love when Zef’s pitching, and he went out there and for whatever reason had a tough time with those first two hitters finding the strike zone,” said Suzuki, who extended Zeferjahn after the right-hander threw eight pitches in the seventh inning. “Then you get two seeing-eye singles, and one was under 60 mph off the bat.”
The Angels broke through in the eighth on an RBI single from Nolan Schanuel after he extended the at-bat by challenging a called third strike. But Jo Adell grounded out with the tying run at third base.
The Padres made it 4-1 in the ninth on a sacrifice fly from Laureano and another RBI single from Tatis.
Yoan Moncada singled and Vaughn Grissom walked in the ninth for the Angels before Logan O’Hoppe struck out and Adam Frazier grounded out to end it against Padres closer Mason Miller, who finished off his seventh save.
“They never stopped fighting,” Suzuki said. “They keep going. I mean (against) Mason Miller, they get two guys on and the tying run comes to the plate twice. Two shots at it against the best closer in the game. These guys keep fighting, and it’s fun to be a part of.”
It was a rough night around home plate for both teams. O’Hoppe was hit in the throat by a foul ball off the dirt and immediately called for the training staff but remained in the game after a short delay.
Cronenworth took a glancing blow off the chin on a 96.5-mph fastball from Kikuchi in the fifth. He also remained in the game after a short delay.
“It definitely wasn’t on purpose, and I was just hoping it was nothing serious,” Kikuchi said. “I have some people I know on the Padres’ training staff, so I will reach out to them and hopefully nothing serious happened to him.”