ANAHEIM — The encouraging signs from the Angels last week have now vanished in a miserable stretch of games.
The Angels lost, 8-1, to the Boston Red Sox on Saturday night, dropping their fifth straight game and falling a season-high 18 games under .500.
The Angels (36-54) had played over .500 for more than a month until this week’s three losses against the Seattle Mariners and two to the Red Sox. They have one more game against Boston on Sunday.
The offense has managed a collective .185 average and eight runs in the losing streak. Their only run against Boston starter Sonny Gray on Saturday was Josh Lowe’s second-inning homer. The Angels had only four hits.
When a team is hitting like that, a three-run deficit before their first at-bat of the game is a rough way to go.
Angels starter Sam Aldegheri put them in that hole with another poor start.
Bad first innings have bitten Aldegheri a few times. On May 5, he walked two and gave up two hits in the first inning, and then he didn’t give up anything else through four. On June 12, he walked and allowed a hit in the first, before settling down.
This time, Aldegheri walked two of the first three hitters. He then fell behind Boston cleanup hitter Willson Contreras, and he dumped a 2-and-1 fastball over the middle of the plate. Contreras drilled a three-run homer.
He would have allowed a second homer if not for Jo Adell’s leaping catch at the right-field fence.
After that, Aldegheri tacked on three scoreless, hitless innings. He still walked two more hitters, though. He was at 88 pitches after four, ending his night.
Aldegheri has now started six times for the Angels, with a 5.08 ERA over his nine games. He’s walked 17 batters in 33⅔ innings.
Aldegheri struggled at a time when right-hander Grayson Rodriguez is getting closer to a return to the rotation. Rodriguez, who is out with back inflammation, gave up one run in 5⅓ innings in his second rehab start on Saturday night.
The Angels were only down 3-1 when Aldegheri left the game, but things got away with left-hander Samy Natera Jr. on the mound.
Natera had given up just one run in his first nine games, but he gave up four on Saturday night. Natera gave up three hits, including a homer, and he walked one and hit one.
Relievers Ryan Zeferjahn, Chase Silseth and Brent Suter held the Red Sox to one run the rest of the way, but the hitters didn’t even threaten to get back in the game. The Angels had only one hit after they fell behind, 7-1, and they did not get a runner into scoring position.
More to come on this story.