ANAHEIM — The injuries, the waiver claims and the callups – from as far away as Double-A – keep coming and yet Angels manager Ron Washington continues to keep his eye on the prize.
Even as the Angels fell, 10-4, in the opener of a four-game series against the Kansas City Royals on Thursday night, following an afternoon when the roster’s revolving door begged for grease on its bearings, Washington was preaching the goal when he first arrived.
While acknowledging a win-loss record below his own expectations, Washington is mapping roads to the playoffs. As the Angels entered the day as one of three American League teams with a winning percentage below .400, Washington remained unbowed.
The loss left them with the worst home start in franchise history at 4-12.
Asked if it was turning into rebuild mode or still “win now,” while trying to get to the playoffs, Washington answered simply by removing the question mark.
“Win now. We’re still looking to get to the playoffs,” Washington said.
The task no doubt will be difficult, with the Angels (14-24) falling Thursday as left-hander Reid Detmers was on the mound. Detmers entered as the only Angels starter who did not have a losing record, although Tyler Anderson sports a rotation-best 2.74 ERA.
To Washington, it was not so much a loss as another lesson learned. He came to the Angels, after all, just as one of baseball’s best hitters (Shohei Ohtani) was departing. And he remains in October mode as Mike Trout is rehabbing an injured left knee, with no timetable on when the three-time American League MVP will return.
“We’re trying to go out every night and win ballgames with the personnel that we have,” Washington said. “Our job is to get that personnel prepared to go out there and do what the game asks them to do. And if we got them prepared, and they can go out there and do what the game asked them to do, who says we can’t win?
“I know you’re looking at our record, and our record doesn’t look like anything, but that’s not how we feel. Inside here, we feel like every night we go out there we can win a ballgame.”
Finding enough offense to do the job will remain a challenge. Trout, Anthony Rendon, Brandon Drury and Luis Rengifo all are on the injured list. The Angels added utility man Luis Guillorme from the Atlanta Braves and recalled Kyren Paris, despite his .091 batting average at Double-A.
On Thursday, the Angels didn’t have their first hit off Royals right-hander Michael Wacha until a Logan O’Hoppe single with two outs in the fourth inning. They had just two hits through six innings.
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The Royals essentially put away their sixth victory in their past nine games with a four-run third inning that included a two-run home run into the Royals’ bullpen from Dairon Blanco and a 442-foot, two-run blast by Vinnie Pasquantino four batters later.
Pasquantino had three RBIs on the night. Blanco and Maikel Garcia each had three hits and two RBIs, while Blanco scored four runs.
Detmers (3-4) gave up six runs on seven hits and two walks in five innings and has now given up 18 runs over his last three starts (15⅔ innings). His 2.12 ERA heading into an April 28 outing has more than doubled to 4.96.
The Angels’ offense finally got to a tiring Wacha in the seventh for three runs. Guillorme and Cole Tucker each walked with the bases loaded and Nolan Schanuel added a sacrifice fly to make it 9-3. Royals left-hander Daniel Lynch IV got out of the jam with an off-balance 1-4-3 double play.
Tucker added a sacrifice fly for a run in the ninth.
More to come on this story.