BOSTON — The Angels cleaned up their pitching and defensive mistakes just in time for their bats to go quiet.
A collective offensive outage wasted a strong outing by starter Reid Detmers in the Angels’ 2-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Sunday.
The Angels have lost the first three games of this four-game series, with Shohei Ohtani taking the mound on Monday to try to avoid a sweep.
A litany of fundamental errors marked the Angels losses on Friday and Saturday, but on Sunday it was a simple matter of failure to produce at the plate.
When they did have an opportunity to score in the eighth inning, pinch-runner Brett Phillips spoiled it by getting picked off second base.
The Angels had just four hits, including just three in seven innings against right-hander Garrett Whitlock. Anthony Rendon led off the second with a double and he scored on Brandon Drury’s two-out single.
That was it for the Angels’ offense.
They put the leadoff man on the third, sixth and eighth innings, but double plays snuffed out two of those opportunities and Phillips’ mistake ruined the third.
Detmers took a hard-luck loss after giving up two runs in 6-1/3 innings, both of them on one swing by Justin Turner.
In the third inning, Detmers threw Turner an 0-and-1 fastball just off the inside corner of the plate, and Turner yanked it over the Green Monster for a two-run homer.
After that, Detmers retired the next eight hitters. He gave up back-to-back singles to start the sixth, but escaped with the help of a double play.
Detmers finished with seven strikeouts and one walk.
