ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Angels entered the All-Star break hoping to emerge as legitimate playoff contenders over the second half of the season.
Friday night was a reminder that they need better pitching to get there.
Despite a dramatic three-run rally in the bottom of the ninth, the Angels came up just short in a 6-5 loss to the Seattle Mariners.
“Of course you want to win, but I loved every second of our effort tonight,” Angels manager Joe Maddon said, adding: “Everything was there tonight.”
Everything, except dependable pitching.
While the Angels bats came to life late, poor performances on the mound from Andrew Heaney and Dylan Bundy had left them in too deep of a hole.
Heaney struggled in a four-inning, four-run start. Bundy gave up a two-run homer to Mitch Haniger in the seventh. And by the beginning of the eighth, the Angels trailed 6-1.
“We didn’t pitch as well as we can,” Maddon said. “Andrew had a tough night. And the home run by Haniger was a big play. I knew that in the moment.”
Still, the Angels (45-45) almost came back anyway.
After Mariners starter Chris Flexen left the mound following a dominant seven-inning, one-run outing, the Angels (45-45) began to chip away. Walsh hit an RBI single in the eighth, then a throwing error in the ninth by Mariners second baseman Dylan Moore on a potential game-ending double-play gave the Angels late life.
With two outs, David Fletcher hit a chopper that deflected off Kyle Seager’s outstretched glove at third for an RBI single. Shohei Ohtani came to the plate as the tying run and lined a two-run single into center at the end of a seven-pitch at-bat.
Walsh kept the rally alive with a single of his own, putting runners on the corners. But Phil Gosselin couldn’t complete the comeback, flying out to end the game.
“Your team plays like that every night,” Maddon said, “you’re going to win a lot of games.”
Fletcher’s performance extended his hitting streak to 25 games. Max Stassi had the Angels’ lone home run, an opposite-field solo shot in the second inning that briefly tied the game at 1-1.
In the top of the third, however, the Mariners (49-43) struck for three runs against Heaney. With one out, Haniger doubled. Ty France rolled a single into right in the next at-bat. Then Seager blasted a two-run homer.
“I just didn’t think he had his best stuff,” Maddon said, later adding: “From the beginning, he just didn’t have that normal jump or carry on the ball, and they were on him.”
Heaney now has a 5.56 ERA this season and has given up 19 earned runs in his last 181/3 innings.
“I’m not having the year that I’d like to be having,” Heaney said. “I just gotta think of it as a new season for me in the second half of the year, and try and give our team a chance to win.
“That’s the most frustrating thing. I feel like if I just have a halfway decent start there, that rally that we have in the ninth that comes up a little bit short doesn’t come up short.”
Haniger’s homer off Bundy in the seventh inning didn’t help either, giving the Mariners just enough cushion to hang on the rest of the night.
It was only the sixth time in 43 games this season the Angels lost when scoring at least five runs.
“We have that potential (to pitch better),” Maddon said, “but you have to go out there and you have to prove it time and time again. That’s how you win.”
