ANAHEIM — The Angels’ hitters came up short again.
After scoring a pair of first-inning runs on a homer, the Angels couldn’t push home another run in their 3-2, 10-inning loss to the A’s on Thursday night. They finished the game with only five hits.
For most of the night, the Angels didn’t even have a runner in scoring position to drive in. They finally had chances in the ninth and 10th, with the automatic runner, but they failed.
Jo Adell started the 10th with a single, sending Vaughn Grissom to third. Josh Lowe then struck out, and Jorge Soler hit into a double play.
The defense also let them down in the top of the 10th, when second baseman Adam Frazier double-clutched on what would have been an inning-ending double play.
The night started out well for the Angels, but then turned into a far too familiar slog.
In the first inning, Mike Trout singled and then Nolan Schanuel hit a two-run homer. It was Schanuel’s first homer since April 22.
It also snapped a 15-game streak in which the Angels had given up the first run in every game. The Angels (17-34) hadn’t scored first since May 3.
Their offense has become almost solely reliant on homers, though. After Schanuel’s homer, the Angels did nothing.
Six of the next eight hitters struck out and the Angels didn’t have another baserunner until Josh Lowe’s single in the fifth. And he was erased on a double play one pitch later.
They didn’t get a runner into scoring position until the ninth inning, when Adam Frazier singled and took second on a Trout walk.
A night earlier, the Angels scored five runs in the first two innings, on three homers. They couldn’t get another run, though, and they ended up losing the game in 10 innings.
Their inability to manufacture any kind of offense with hits other than homers is reflected in their .223 batting average, which is the second-worst mark in the majors.
The lackluster offensive showing cost José Soriano a victory that he deserved. He gave up two runs in 6⅔ innings, a nice bounceback from a recent rough stretch.
After posting an 0.24 ERA in his first six starts, Soriano had a 6.14 ERA in his past four. That included a start last weekend against the Dodgers, when he inexplicably walked four batters in one inning after dominating for the first five.
Soriano seemed to have his control dialed in from the start on Thursday night.
In the first inning, he struck out the side on 11 pitches. He cruised through the first three innings without allowing a baserunner.
When the A’s finally did get a hit, center fielder José Siri erased it. Carlos Cortes bounced a single up the middle, but then he rounded first too far and Siri fired behind him to nab him.
Soriano did not give up a run until the sixth inning, when he allowed a two-out double to Shea Langeliers and then a single to Nick Kurtz.
Soriano gave up another run in the seventh. He gave up a two-out RBI single to Darrel Hernaiz.
Relievers Chase Silseth, José Fermin and Kirby Yates followed Soriano and maintained the tie. Yates pitched a scoreless ninth a night after he had allowed a game-tying homer in the ninth.
The Angels (17-34) lost for the 24th time in their past 30 games and are 1-6 so far on their 10-game homestand.
More to come on this story.