ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ Ricky Nolasco's solid outing was ruined in a span of two batters in the seventh inning on Wednesday night.
The Angels' right-hander gave up back-to-back homers to end his night in a 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, continuing an issue he has faced all season.
Colby Rasmus led off the seventh with a homer, and then Steven Souza followed with his second of the night, turning a one-run deficit into a three-run hole.
The Rays hit three homers against Nolasco, who has now allowed 16. That's second only to Houston's Mike Fiers (17) in the majors. Of the 29 runs Nolasco has allowed this season, 21 have trotted across the plate on homers.
He's allowed 2.5 homers per nine innings this season, more than double the rate of 1.1 he'd carried into this season.
The only somewhat comforting fact is that 11 of the homers have come with the bases empty. And he's been effective enough when keeping the ball in the ballpark that he's still kept the Angels in most of his games.
After Nolasco gave up Souza's two-run homer in the second, he allowed just one run on four hits over the next four innings.
That run, on back-to-back doubles by Corey Dickerson and Kevin Kiermaier in the third, was enough to have him pitching with a 3-2 deficit for most of the game, though.
That's because the Angels couldn't muster anything other than a homer of their own.
In the first inning, Albert Pujols followed a Mike Trout double by belting a two-run homer out to left. It was the 597th homer of his career, and first since May 9.
Pujols is creeping up on his milestone, having hit just six homers in the Angels' first 49 games. He's homered in back-to-back series just once this season.
After the Pujols homer, the Angels got only two runners into scoring position, on doubles by Trout in the third and Andrelton Simmons in the fourth.
