A 6-3 loss to the Houston Astros in Game 1 of a doubleheader Tuesday exposed, again, the Angels' biggest flaw: starting pitching.
Jose Suarez, recalled last week for the first time this season, faced 12 batters in one-plus inning of work. He gave up five runs on five hits and four walks.
By the time Suarez (0-2) walked off the mound in Houston, the combined earned-run average of Angels starters had risen to 6.36, the second-highest mark in the majors.
The Astros batted around in the first inning, aided by a couple of defensive breaks. With a runner on second, shortstop David Fletcher dived to keep a ball hit by Carlos Correa from entering the outfield. He flipped the ball to second baseman Tommy La Stella from the seat of his pants. La Stella couldn't glove it to retire the lead runner. On the next play, Suarez was late getting to a slow roller hit toward third base by Yuli Gurriel and then threw the ball past first baseman Albert Pujols.
Suarez continued to pitch poorly after five singles, the throwing error and a non-play at second base. He walked the first two batters of the second inning. When he relinquished the ball to manager Joe Maddon, Suarez had thrown 40 pitches and induced misses on five of 16 swings by the Astros. Suarez's fastball velocity reached as high as 95 mph for a second consecutive start, but he labored with the pitch. He received only two strike calls on his four-seam fastball.
The Angels optioned Suarez to the team's alternate site after the game, but Maddon restated his confidence in the 22-year-old left-hander.
"This kid is gonna be really good," Maddon said. "It hasn't gone his way so far. I know nobody wants to hear that. But it's true. He's very talented. I just told him that the biggest mistake he's made is throwing that ball to first base. If he just put that in his pocket, then it's bases loaded and he had a chance to work out of it. Once that occurs, I'm sure his mind began racing some more. That was the one part of that game that I would like for him to have done differently."
Suarez's teammates couldn't overcome his dreadful outing, but right-hander Jaime Barria gave them a chance. He retired 15 of 18 batters he faced in five innings, including three straight to take Suarez off the hook in the second inning. The one run Barria surrendered scored on a Gurriel hit that reached the warning track on a bounce for a double in the fourth.
Barria, serving as the team's extra man for the doubleheader, also impressed Maddon in a mop-up situation last week. He gave up two runs and two hits in 4 1/3 innings in the Angels' 8-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants on a day the heat index reached 108 degrees.
