ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ If the Angels are going to make some kind of late-summer run, if not to make the playoffs at least to make things interesting in the American League wild-card race, they might want to start soon.
They remained stuck in neutral in a 7-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays before a sparse crowd of 9,132 in Tropicana Field Wednesday night, their third straight defeat dropping them to 54-55 and keeping them 9 { games behind Seattle and now Oakland for the last playoff spot.
Since June 25, the Angels have remained within two games of .500, either one or two games above or one or two games below the mark of mediocrity, the very definition of a team spinning its wheels.
They have been neither good enough to cut into the wild-card deficit nor bad enough to fall so far back they have no chance.
Angels right-hander Nick Tropeano mirrored his team's season with a 5 2/3-inning, four-run, seven-hit, four-strikeout, four-walk effort that was good enough to win on some nights but not on one his offense mustered just six hits and struck out 11 times.
The Angels made an early splash when Kole Calhoun became only the seventh player in Tropicana Field history to homer into the Rays touch tank beyond the right-center field wall, driving a hanging curve from Rays starter Tyler Glasnow 427 feet for a 1-0 lead.
It was the right fielder's 13th homer since his June 12 return from the disabled list, a torrid 36-game stretch in which Calhoun has hit .302 (38-126) with nine doubles, 30 RBIs and 27 runs to raise his average from .145 to .211.
Tropeano escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the third inning when Jake Bauers hit a wicked line drive right at shortstop Andrelton Simmons, who was in perfect position behind second-base to make the catch and step on the bag for a double play.
Glasnow, a hard-throwing 6-foot-6 right-hander who was one of the players acquired from Pittsburgh for Tampa Bay pitcher Chris Archer before Tuesday's trade deadline, gave way to reliever Jake Faria to start the fourth inning.
Justin Upton sparked an Angels rally with a one-out infield single. He took third on Albert Pujols' double into the left-field corner and scored on Simmons' 105-mph line drive that nicked the glove of shortstop Willy Adames on its way to center field for an RBI single and a 2-0 lead.
Six batters into the bottom of the fourth, the lead was gone. Tommy Pham, who was making his Rays debut after being acquired from the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday, was hit by a pitch to start the inning.
Michael Perez flied to left. Joey Wendle doubled into the right-field corner to advance Pham to third. Ji-Man Choi lined out to left, Upton charging in for the catch and making a strong throw to cut-off man Luis Valbuena to keep Pham at third.
Or so the Angels thought. Valbuena made an ill-advised, awkward throw to third in an attempt to pick off Pham, even though he had no play. Simmons was en route to third and was not close enough to the bag to catch the toss, which rolled into foul territory, allowing Pham to score.
The error looked bad, but Pham would have scored on Adames ensuing RBI single to left that scored Wendle to tie the score at 2. Mallex Smith followed with a triple to the left-center field gap to score Adames for a 3-2 Rays lead.
The Angels threatened in the top of the fifth, putting two on with one out when Francisco Arcia singled and Calhoun walked with one out, but Mike Trout popped out to third and Upton flied to right.
Tropeano escaped another bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the fifth, striking out Choi with a full-count changeup to end the inning, but his 90-mph fastball to Adames to lead off the sixth was clobbered into the left-field seats for a solo homer that gave Tampa Bay a 4-2 lead.
The Rays tacked on three insurance runs in the eighth when Smith walked, stole second and third and scored on Matt Duffy's RBI single and Bauers followed with a two-run homer to right-center.
