ANAHEIM — It took only two save opportunities for Hunter Strickland to blow one.
The veteran right-hander got both ninth-inning leads after the Angels traded veterans Carlos Estévez and Luis Garcia, and on Thursday night he gave up a game-tying two-run homer in the Angels’ 5-4, 10-inning loss to the Colorado Rockies.
The Angels were an out away from a victory when Strickland allowed a homer to Jake Cave.
The Rockies got their automatic runner home in the top of the 10th with the help of a throwing error by pitcher Hans Crouse after he fielded a bunt. Crouse retired the next three to escape further damage.
The Angels got their automatic runner to third on a wild pitch, but Willie Calhoun and Logan O’Hoppe hit groundouts that weren’t enough to get the runner home.
The blown save for Strickland comes amid questions of when Manager Ron Washington will give hard-throwing Ben Joyce the job. Joyce has not allowed a run in his last 21⅓ innings.
Before Strickland blew the lead in the ninth, Carson Fulmer was in line for a victory after allowing two runs in six innings. It was the first time he’d reached that milestone in six years.
Fulmer was once a top starter prospect, a first-round draft pick who got to the big leagues with the Chicago White Sox. He reached the majors in 2016, but the starting opportunities began to diminish by 2019. After that, he bounced from team to team, working as a reliever.
The Angels finally gave him a shot to start in July, after a handful of others had failed to adequately replaced injured Patrick Sandoval and demoted Reid Detmers.
Fulmer lasted 4⅔ innings in each of his first two starts, and then 5⅔ the last time and then he finally finished the sixth on Thursday. He hasn’t allowed more than three runs in any game.
On Thursday, he gave up a two-run homer in the second to Michael Toglia, and then nothing else. Left fielder Taylor Ward caught a fly ball against the wall to get Fulmer out of the fifth. He went through the heart of the Colorado order in the sixth, striking out the last two.
The other half of the Angels’ battery provided the bulk of the power in this game.
Catcher O’Hoppe belted his 16th homer of the season, a 454-foot blast into the rocks beyond the center field fence. It was the third-longest homer of the season for the Angels, and the longest at Angel Stadium.
O’Hoppe’s homer tied the score at 2-2, and then Mickey Moniak hit a homer to give the Angels a lead in the sixth. Ward added an RBI double in the seventh to provide some insurance.
More to come on this story.
