ANAHEIM, Calif._This is what awaits them. If the Angels are to complete their quest and qualify for the postseason, they will have to win games like this one.
They will have to best front-line starters, bullpens brimming with hard throwers, lineups swollen with power and speed. If they can get past the Oct. 3 wild-card game, they will have to do it night after night.
On Tuesday, they failed their first test, falling 6-3 to Cleveland, the team they would likely face in the American League Division Series. The Angels did not play poorly. They received a solid start from talented young left-hander Tyler Skaggs, exculpatory fielding from their superb defense, and one big, late hit. But their bullpen faltered late, and so they sustained their 74th defeat of this season.
The Indians won for the 25th time in their past 26 games.
With two strikes, two outs and a man on second in the fourth inning, Skaggs aimed low with a fastball and missed high. Jay Bruce did not miss it, banging it off the center-field wall for a run-scoring double. Skaggs again missed high with a fastball in the fifth inning, and Cleveland catcher Roberto Perez sent it out for a solo shot.
When Skaggs surrendered back-to-back singles later in that inning, relief began to warm behind him in the Angels' bullpen. He remained in the game into the sixth, when center fielder Mike Trout caught Carlos Santana's leadoff drive on the warning track. Skaggs celebrated when the ball did not depart the ballpark, then turned and saw Angels manager Mike Scioscia walking out of the dugout to replace him.
The inning's two relievers, Jose Alvarez and Blake Wood, combined to allow a run on a triple and a single. Keynan Middleton and Cam Bedrosian pitched a scoreless inning apiece before Bud Norris encountered trouble in the ninth. He let on five baserunners and let in three runs.
The Indians started their own skilled young starter, Mike Clevinger, who was once an Angels prospect. Three years ago, the Angels sent him to Cleveland for an anonymous reliever named Vinnie Pestano, who pitched 211/3 innings for them and spent this season in unaffiliated baseball.
Clevinger, a lanky, hirsute right-hander, did not permit a hit until the fifth, when Kole Calhoun and Andrelton Simmons strung together singles to begin the inning. The Angels then ran into two outs on the basepaths, though the latter did get across their first run.
They were then held scoreless through the next two innings, Trout ending the sixth with a double-play groundout, and Cleveland reliever Andrew Miller dominating the seventh. But, with two outs in the eighth, they started singling against Bryan Shaw. First, it was C.J. Cron, then pinch-hitter Ben Revere, then Brandon Phillips, scoring one run and bringing up Trout.
Trout ripped a 110-mph grounder _ right to Cleveland second baseman Jose Ramirez. The inning was over.
Cody Allen handled the ninth, rebounding after Justin Upton blasted a 444-foot homer to left-center.
Because Minnesota lost in New York, the Angels lost no ground. They remain 1{ games behind the Twins with a dozen games left in the regular season. It is increasingly likely that the American League wild-card game will be held at Yankee Stadium.
What's left to be determined is if the Angels, Twins or a longshot will be New York's opponent.
