ANAHEIM, Calif._The Angels reconvened for the second half of their 2017 season on Friday afternoon, upbeat and hopeful while welcoming back Mike Trout. Seventy games remained to play, and they just survived 39 without Trout.
Friday's 2-1 loss to Tampa Bay in 10 innings, then, supplied a reminder to the club and its fans that flaws still abound. On a listless night for the Angels' offense, Trout struck out swinging on three pitches to secure the defeat.
Brad Miller supplied the winning RBI double in the top of the 10th for the Rays off Cam Bedrosian.
To start their second half, the Angels chose Ricky Nolasco, the 34-year-old right-hander whom they also chose to commence their season. He carried a 4-10 record, a 5.06 earned-run average, and an uneven track record into the evening. In his last five starts, he had been wonderful or terrible, lacking any in between.
He extended his streak and turned in a tremendous outing, his one blip a solo shot from Evan Longoria in Friday's first inning. To begin, third baseman Yunel Escobar failed to field a routine pop-up down the third-base line, but Nolasco rebounded to strike out Corey Dickerson. Longoria next knocked the homer to left-center, the 26th home run Nolasco allowed this season, in his 102nd inning. He surrendered 26 in 1972/3 innings last year.
The Angels (45-48) faced 23-year-old Rays rookie right-hander Jacob Faria, who attended nearby Gahr High in Cerritos and expected well over 100 friends and family members to attend Friday's game. Undefeated in six starts since his debut last month, Faria made it seven. He struck out four Angels, walked two, and held them to a handful of hits.
Only one counted for anything: In the Angels' half of the second, Albert Pujols bashed his 605th career home run a few inches beyond the center-field wall, where Mallex Smith nearly caught it. After Andrelton Simmons doubled and stayed stranded at second, the Angels next threatened in the third.
Hit in the helmet, Cameron Maybin appeared to steal second before a successful challenge reversed the call. Kole Calhoun walked, Trout lashed a single up the middle and stole second, but Pujols hit a comebacker to end the inning.
Escobar led off the fourth with a single. Simmons next tapped a potential double-play ball back to Faria. But Miller, manning second base, could not field Faria's throw, and instead the Angels had two men on without an out. Three batters later, the bases were loaded with two outs, but Maybin lined an 0-and-2 pitch to right for the third out..
In the seventh, Longoria led off with a double, which broke Nolasco's five-inning hitless streak. Longoria soon took third, and Nolasco issued a one-out walk to Steven Souza. The trouble mounted as Blake Parker warmed in the Angels' bullpen.
Nolasco fired a first-pitch fastball for a strike, then placed a sinker where he wanted it, and Wilson Ramos grounded into an inning-ending double play.
The Angels amassed a tiny rally in the bottom of the inning. Martin Maldonado singled, Calhoun took a pitch off his back, and Trout batted with the go-ahead run in scoring position. Rays right-hander Tommy Hunter jogged in from the visiting bullpen for the occasion and hung a breaking ball for his first pitch.
Trout watched it go by his chest for a strike. He swung at the next pitch, a better fastball along the outside edge and grounded out to second.
Parker entered for the eighth to conclude Nolasco's two-hit, 98-pitch night. He worked out of the inning in five pitches. The Rays' Hunter required only nine to retire three Angels in the bottom of the inning, and so it went onto the ninth, the two teams still tied.
Bud Norris, the Angels' de facto closer and prime trade candidate if they fall out of the race, set down the Rays in order. Brad Boxberger, a Fullerton native and USC product, pitched the bottom of the ninth and had a 1-2-3 inning.
.jpg?w=600)
