DETROIT — The Angels’ four-game winning streak came to a quiet end on Wednesday night.
The excitement of their rare success was replaced by a dud of a game, with the hitters and starter José Soriano having an off night in a 4-0 loss to the Detroit Tigers.
The Angels only had two hits – one with an asterisk – and only twice had a runner in scoring position.
Jorge Soler had the Angels’ first hit, in the second inning, and he immediately committed a costly baserunning gaffe.
Soler was at first when Wade Meckler hit a hard ground ball just in front of him. Soler had to hesitate so the ball wouldn’t hit him, but then he jogged to second. Second baseman Hao-Yu Lee bobbled the ball, but still had time to get Soler at second because he wasn’t running hard.
Meckler then stole second, which led to the Angels’ only two at-bats with a runner in scoring position before the ninth inning. Jo Adell and Oswald Peraza both struck out, two of the Angels’ nine strikeouts.
After that, their only hit was a ground ball that Donovan Walton hit toward first base. The ball hit the bag and bounced away from Spencer Torkelson, so Walton was safe.
The most life that was shown in the Angels’ dugout came from Manager Kurt Suzuki when he was arguing about an ABS challenge that Mike Trout was denied.
The Angels didn’t even get much of a performance on the mound from their ace, Soriano.
Soriano gave up three runs in five innings. His control was his biggest problem. He started only 11 of 24 hitters with a first-pitch strike, which led to allowing seven hits and four walks.
One of the hits was a Torkelson homer on a 3-and-2 fastball over the middle.
In the fifth inning, Soriano picked up the first two outs quickly, and then he walked the next two hitters. Riley Greene yanked a single on the first pitch he saw, driving in a run to extend the Tigers’ lead to 3-0.
The best thing that happened for the Angels was that left-hander Brent Suter soaked up the final three innings, allowing the rest of the bullpen to have a night off. They’ll all be fresh when the Angels try to win the series on Thursday afternoon.
More to come on this story.