ARLINGTON, Texas — The Angels’ losing streak reached seven games because of a nightmarish sequence in the late innings on Tuesday night.
The Angels took a one-run lead into the bottom of the seventh, and ended up losing to the Texas Rangers, 8-3, falling a season-worst 20 games under .500.
The Angels (36-56) were having a pretty good night, including a strong six innings from José Soriano. Manager Kurt Suzuki handed a 3-2 lead to the bullpen in the seventh, when everything went wrong.
First, left-hander Tayler Saucedo was summoned to face the lefties at the bottom of the Texas order in the seventh. He immediately gave up a game-tying homer to right-handed pinch-hitter Justin Foscue.
In the eighth, Sam Bachman – the Angels’ most dependable reliever for most of the season – gave up five runs.
The inning started with a bloop single. Jake Burger then hit a grounder over the middle. Shortstop Zach Neto got to the ball behind the bag. He had no play at second, but he still tried to flip the ball behind his back to second baseman Oswald Peraza, and the Angels got no one. Neto would have had a better chance just taking the out at first.
The runners moved up on a grounder. Had that been the second out instead of the first, the Angels would not have had to have the infield in when Ezequiel Duran punched a ground ball through the left side.
Foscue followed with another hit, driving in a second run. Bachman then gave up a three-run homer to Alejandro Osuna, who had not hit a homer in his first 181 plate appearances this season.
The ugly finish spoiled a solid start for Soriano, who gave the Angels the kind of outing they’ve been expecting to see ever since his sensational first month of the season. Ever since then, Soriano has struggled.
He gave up two runs in six innings on Tuesday, snapping an 11-game stretch in which the Angels had failed to get a starter through six innings.
Other than a hiccup in the second inning, and he was inches from getting out of that without allowing a run.
Soriano issued back-to-back walks. The runners were at second and third with two outs, when No. 9 hitter Nicky López punched a sharp grounder just past the glove of third baseman Denzer Guzman. Both runners scored.
Soriano retired 13 of the last 14 batters he faced, leaving the mound in a 2-2 game after six.
He had a two-run lead before he threw his first pitch, because the Angels got off to a quick start against Jacob deGrom.
The Angels have been surprisingly good against the two-time Cy Young Award winner lately. In their previous two cracks at him, they scored nine runs on three homers in eight innings.
In the first inning on Tuesday, Nolan Schanuel walked and scored on Jorge Soler’s 111-mph double off the fence in left-center. Soler scored on a Josh Lowe bloop single.
After that, though, the Angels didn’t get anything else against deGrom. Rangers manager Skip Schumaker pulled him after five innings and 80 pitches.
The Angels’ only other run came on Wade Meckler’s seventh-inning RBI single, which gave them a lead they didn’t hold for long.
More to come on this story.