Wednesday's MLB: Ex-Tiger Nevin loses debut with Angels; Royals break out of 5-15 skid
Anaheim, Calif. — Swapping out their manager didn’t change the Los Angeles Angels’ fortunes.
The Halos matched a franchise record with their 13th straight defeat hours late Tuesday after firing manager Joe Maddon, falling 6-5 to the streaking Boston Red Sox on Christian Vázquez’s go-ahead single in the 10th inning.
Interim boss Phil Nevin lost his managerial debut and Angels star Mike Trout exited with left groin tightness as Los Angeles tied the franchise mark for its longest skid set from 1988-89. The Angels dropped the final 12 games on the 1988 schedule – their worst stretch in a single season before this one – and then their 1989 opener.
“I’m not worried about morale at all,” Nevin said. “You saw the effort from everyone. We had good at-bats. I thought there was a lot of great things. It was just a game where we ended up on the wrong side.”
Boston won its sixth straight with a 15-hit effort, including two from Vázquez. Bobby Dalbec had two RBIs.
Trout homered in the first inning and gingerly ran out a double in the third before leaving with the groin issue. He said he felt a little sore but isn’t overly alarmed. There was no scan or MRI done after Trout left the game.
“Coming out of the box, I didn’t feel it and then I felt like a little cramp. Then I got to second base and a little achy and tried to be smart about it. I’ll see how I feel tomorrow,” Trout said. “At least it isn’t nothing crazy.”
With Trevor Story as the automatic runner in the 10th, Vázquez had a one-out base hit through the hole at second base off Jaime Barria (1-1) to drive in the go-ahead run.
“That was a big hole at second base,” Vázquez said “I love those clutch situations. Somebody needs to do it so why not me?”
Jo Adell had an RBI double and scored a tiebreaking run, but Los Angeles blew a lead in the seventh inning or later for the sixth time during this skid.
After Dalbec’s RBI single cut Boston’s deficit to 5-4 in the sixth, Rafael Devers scored the tying run in the seventh when a grounder up the middle by Story deflected off pitcher Ryan Tepera’s glove.
Tanner Houck (4-3) got the win and Matt Strahm retired the side in the bottom of the 10th for his second save.
Strahm retired Kurt Suzuki to end the game on a grounder to shortstop Enrique Hernandez, who began in center field and slid to short after Xander Bogaerts was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the ninth due to left shoulder tightness.
Boston’s bullpen allowed only one run on two hits and struck out nine in six innings.
“The bullpen did an amazing job. We went to them quick,” manager Alex Cora said. “It was a weird game because we put pressure on them the whole game and we were kind of coming up empty. Christian had a great at-bat in the end.”
Nevin, who played 12 major league seasons for six teams, including the Angels in 1998, returned to the franchise this season as third-base coach after four seasons in the same capacity with the New York Yankees.
Angels GM Perry Minasian said Nevin will be the manager for the rest of the season. This is the first time Nevin has managed in the majors. He has seven years of managerial experience in the minors.
Shohei Ohtani got aboard in the first with a double off the wall in left-center. Trout – who came into the game with one hit in his last 29 at-bats – then drove Garrett Whitlock’s sinker over the wall in center field for his 14th home run of the season and a 2-0 advantage.
Boston took the lead with three runs in the second. The Red Sox had four hits and a walk in the frame, including RBI base hits from Dalbec and Enrique Hernandez.
The Angels tied it in the home half of the frame when Juan Lagares scored after first baseman Dalbec booted a slow ground ball hit by Andrew Velazquez. Los Angeles grabbed a 4-3 advantage in the third on Max Stassi’s RBI ground-rule double down the right-field line and extended it in the fifth when Adell drove in Luis Rengifo with a double.
Both teams had runners in scoring position in the ninth inning, but were unable to score.
More games
(At) Kansas City 8, Toronto 4: Mike Matheny spent about 20 minutes in the dugout before his Kansas City Royals took the field against the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday and tried to put what has been a miserable 20-game stretch into perspective.
“There’s some things we can get better at,” Matheny said of the 5-15 rut, “and it’s a long list.”
They took care of a couple of them in their series finale against Toronto.
Kansas City finally managed to get into hitter’s counts throughout the game, knocking out Blue Jays starter Yusei Kikuchi before the end of the first inning, and rolled the rest of the way to an 8-4 victory that ended a three-game losing streak.
MJ Melendez and Emmanuel Rivera drove in two runs apiece. Carlos Santana went 4 for 4 and reached base five times during his eighth career four-hit game. And lumbering catcher Salvador Perez had his first triple in five years.
“I mean, it’s helpful when you start talking about hitter’s counts instead of pitcher’s counts,” Matheny said afterward. “We have been on the other side of that, where you have to go to the bullpen early and have to kind of navigate things.”
Brady Singer allowed home runs to Raimel Tapia and Zack Collins but only allowed one other run in five tough innings. He improved to 3-1 in his five starts while the rest of the Kansas City rotation is 3-25 in 50 combined starts.
“I felt like I battled,” Singer said. “Gave the team a chance to win.”
Kikuchi retired only two batters while walking four and serving up two hits that cost him three first-inning runs – two more than Kansas City scored in its last four games against the Blue Jays, including a pair of shutouts to start the series.
Toronto briefly tied the game 3-all before Trevor Richards (2-1) allowed three more runs in the fourth and fifth innings.
“It gets tough,” Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said, “because you’ve got to cover eight, nine innings when the bullpen is already thin. So like I always say, pitching and defense wins. If Kikuchi comes throwing strikes, we have a good chance.
“Credit to our team that we still battled back and were in the game,” he added, “but it was too much to overcome.”