ANAHEIM — Lost amid the narrative about how the Angels’ bullpen has cost them so much lately is the fact that the offense hasn’t done much either.
The Angels lost 5-1 to the New York Mets on Sunday, losing for the 12th time in their last 14 games.
The Angels (13-22) have averaged 3.2 runs in those games, and it’s really worse than that. They have had games of seven runs twice and nine runs once to inflate the average. In eight of their last 14 games, they have scored two or fewer.
Manager Kurt Suzuki said the offensive problems have been different throughout the stretch.
“Some days it’s strikeouts,” he said. “Some days it’s soft contact early. So it’s not really one thing.”
Although they gave up a ninth-inning lead on Wednesday in Chicago, they only scored two runs that day. In Friday’s series opener against the Mets, the Angels didn’t have a hit after the first inning.
On Sunday, Zach Neto and Mike Trout started the first inning with consecutive walks, but they let Mets starter Clay Holmes off the hook. Nolan Schanuel struck out. Jorge Soler drove in a run with a single. Jo Adell then grounded into a double play.
After that, the Angels had just five singles and one walk. They also had a hitter reach on an error. They didn’t get a runner into scoring position at any point after the first inning.
Holmes, who now has a 1.69 ERA, was not a likely pitcher to end the Angels’ slump.
“Obviously we’d like to have better at-bats as the game goes on, but sometimes you got to give credit to the pitcher as much as you don’t want to,” Suzuki said. “I thought the guys did the best they could with the way he was throwing the ball.”
Adell said he believes the hitters are doing the right things to get out of the slump.
“I think from an approach standpoint offensively we’ve all dialed into what our approach is going to be,” he said. “Nobody’s in here trying to hit into a double play with no outs and not score runs or you know have a strikeout in a big moment with a runner on third, and not score runs. Nobody’s trying to do that stuff. I think at the end of the day we’re just going to continue to show up and do what we do and compete and this is a group full of competitors and guys getting after it so it’ll it’ll come around.”
Meanwhile, the Angels wasted a strong performance from Jack Kochanowicz.
Kochanowicz has a 3.05 ERA after seven starts. Since allowing six runs in his first start of the season, Kochanowicz has not allowed more than three runs in any of his next six outings. It’s been a pleasant surprise considering that he had a 6.81 ERA in 23 starts last season.
Kochanowicz gave up two runs — both on a Mark Vientos homer — in 6⅓ innings on Sunday.
He walked three and allowed some hard contact, but he nonetheless gave the Angels what they needed by getting into the seventh inning. He threw 110 pitches.
“I thought he was awesome,” Suzuki said. “I thought we pushed him a little bit farther than we had been. Checking with him, he felt strong. I feel like his last couple innings were almost his better ones, settling in with his fastball. We tried to push the envelope with him and get him an opportunity to go out there and go into the seventh, stretch him out past 100 pitches and he responded really well.”
Vientos hit another homer, a two-run shot, against reliever Nick Sandlin in the eighth, giving the Mets a more comfortable cushion. Sandlin has an 11.42 ERA with the Angels. He had a career 3.19 ERA when he underwent elbow surgery last fall, and the Angels then signed him to a minor league deal.
“He was injured and has worked his way back and I think he’s trying to find that consistency,” Suzuki said.