ANAHEIM — The Angels received a pair of gut punches on Tuesday.
One came in the afternoon, when they learned they would be without injured Mike Trout for an extended period of time. The second was hours later, when they coughed up a late two-run lead in a 7-5 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Angels rallied from an early three-run deficit to take a two-run lead in the sixth, but the good feelings were short-lived. They gave up one run in the eighth and then Carlos Estevez yielded three in the ninth.
Estévez gave up a game-tying homer to Nick Castellanos, then a double to Bryson Stott and then a two-run homer to No. 9 hitter Johan Rojas.
“We played a pretty good team over there,” Manager Ron Washington said. “What they did is what they do. They’ve got power. And sometimes you can hold it down and sometimes you can’t. And tonight we couldn’t.”
Estévez threw Castellanos a fastball up in the zone, and he wished he had thrown it higher or lower.
“He was cheating fastball right there and he hit on the barrel,” Estévez said. “He’s a really strong guy. He’s got the pop to do that and unfortunately that one went out.”
Estévez also said the slider to Rojas should have been lower.
“It happens,” Estévez said. “Hopefully next time I’ll go out with the same mentality and I’ll execute my pitches and I believe it’s going to turn out the other way.”
Although Estevez now has a 6.23 ERA, Washington said he’s not considering removing him as his primary closer. He’s converted five of seven save chances.
“I’ve got confidence in him,” Washington said. “He’s saved five or six games already and it’s the second one he blew. I don’t think there’s a closer in baseball that hasn’t blown games.”
The blown save spoiled what might have been an encouraging response to the troubling news the Angels received earlier in the day. Trout needs surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee. Although they are expecting to get Trout back at some point this season, there is no timetable.
In the meantime, the Angels rolled out a lineup with Jo Adell, Taylor Ward, Brandon Drury and Luis Rengifo in the second through fifth spots on Tuesday night.
They were down 3-0 in the second inning, when Zach Neto put the Angels on the board with a homer to right center.
After that, the Angels didn’t threaten until the sixth inning. Ward reached on a one-out infield single. Drury then hit a bouncer directly to shortstop Trea Turner. Instead of a routine, inning-ending double play, Turner bobbled it and couldn’t make a play anywhere.
Rengifo hammered the very next pitch over the right field fence for a three-run homer, putting the Angels ahead, 4-3.
An out later, Cole Tucker doubled. He scored on a single from Mickey Moniak, who is now going to get most of the action in center field replacing Trout.
The Angels then had nine outs to get to secure the victory, and they couldn’t do it. Right-hander Luis Garcia worked a perfect seventh. Left-hander Matt Moore, who was pitching for the third day in a row, gave up a run in the eighth, recording two outs.
Washington then brought in Estévez, looking for four outs, but he only got two. Estévez said he didn’t feel fatigue from Monday’s 26-pitch outing or the extra work from pitching in the eighth were factors in what happened in the ninth.
“I felt good enough to attack the strike zone and get the outs,” he said. “Unfortunately, it turned out the other way. I got hit around, gave up the lead. But honestly, I felt good.”
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Estévez couldn’t lock up the victory for Tyler Anderson, who gave up three runs in six innings, all of them coming on one swing of Kyle Schwarber’s bat in the second inning.
Anderson gave up a one-out single to Nick Castellanos and then he walked Bryson Stott. An out later, he threw Schwarber a 2-and-1 fastball over the outer half of the plate and Schwarber launched it into the left field seats.
After that, though, Anderson locked down for the rest of his outing. He faced just one over the minimum over the next four innings, including five strikeouts.
Anderson has a 2.23 ERA through six starts, a significant improvement from last year’s 5.43 mark.
“I thought he was outstanding,” Washington said. “He did a good job after he put those three runs on the board. He settled down out there and gave us a chance and that’s all you can ask. And plus he gave us six innings.”
