WEST SACRAMENTO — The good feelings and optimism from a sweep of the Dodgers were short-lived.
The Angels lost, 7-2, to the last-place A’s on Saturday night, dropping a second straight game because of shaky starting pitching and an anemic offense.
After 20 runs in three straight victories against the Dodgers, the Angels have been outscored, 17-5, on their way to losses in the first two games of this three-game series against the A’s.
“Obviously you want to win every game,” Angels starter Tyler Anderson said, “and being in a good spot, you want to keep rolling. But it’s part of the game. Sometimes it happens.”
On Saturday night, they didn’t even get a runner into scoring position between the second and eighth innings.
They were in an early hole because of Anderson, who was not sharp in his first start after getting a few extra days for his stiff back. He said his back felt better, but the results weren’t.
Anderson gave up four runs in four innings, walking five. He threw 44 strikes and 41 balls.
“I had a hard time repeating my delivery,” Anderson said. “Not in the zone enough.”
Anderson ran his winless streak to 20 consecutive starts. Anderson is 0-7 with a 5.33 ERA since April 24.
In the first inning, Anderson threw Colby Thomas a 91 mph fastball down the middle, and he hit it out for a two-run homer. Anderson has allowed 27 homers, tied for the major league lead.
Anderson got unlucky to give up two more runs in the third inning. With two outs and two out, he threw several borderline pitches to Tyler Soderstrom and none of them were called strikes. The 3-and-2 pitch seemed to be in the bottom of the zone, but Soderstom walked, loading the bases.
“I was frustrated there, honestly,” Anderson said. “There were three walks that inning, and I felt like in that inning, I started kind of finding my delivery, like it just started coming out kind of the way I wanted to. And I felt like I was making good pitches. Some of them were just misses, and some of them felt like they could have gone either way.
“In that situation, obviously, you would love to get those calls. It probably didn’t do me any favors, though, that you’re spraying it so much early. I think if you’re consistently making good pitches over and over and over, you probably get those. (Umpire Lance Barksdale) is a good guy out there. He’s doing his best to just get the calls right. That’s on me to make better pitches early on.”
Darrell Hernaiz then fisted an inside fastball, dropping it softly over leaping second baseman Luis Rengifo. Two runs scored to put the Angels in a 4-1 hole.
Right-hander Ryan Zeferjahn followed Anderson to the mound and he gave up a homer to Brent Rooker. It was the 11th homer that Zeferjahn has allowed in 47 innings this season. Right-hander Connor Brogdon gave up two more in the eighth, after issuing two walks. The Angels walked eight in the game.
The Angels (59-64), who had only seven singles and no extra-base hits, never really threatened to get back in the game after Anderson was done.
The Angels’ best chance at a rally was in the first inning, when they loaded the bases with two outs. Nolan Schanuel and Mike Trout each singled, and then Yoán Moncada drew a two-out walk. Jo Adell hit a drive to the warning track, but Lawrence Butler camped under it for the catch.
Zach Neto drove in Rengifo with a hit in the second, but then he got thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. The Angels didn’t have anyone else reach second until the eighth inning, when they got a runner into scoring position after two walks. Pinch-hitter Christian Moore and Adell left them there when they each struck out.
They scored a run in the ninth on a hit batter and two singles. The game ended when Trout grounded out with runners at the corners.
The only encouraging sign from the offense was that Schanuel had three hits and a walk, after going 4 for 40 with two walks in his previous 10 games.
“We had some traffic on in the first obviously, and then Jo just missed that ball,” interim manager Ray Montgomery said. “That could have been a different maker right there. And then the ability to just get the big hit, or something like that, when we put some things together, we just haven’t had it here in these two games, for sure.”