WASHINGTON — The Angels had a nice offensive night going until they didn’t.
After scoring four runs on nine hits in the first five innings and taking a two-run lead, the Angels managed just two hits the rest of what became a 5-4, 10-inning loss to the Washington Nationals on Saturday night.
Right-hander Roansy Contreras allowed the Nationals to get their automatic runner home. His first pitch got past catcher Logan O’Hoppe, sending the runner to third. His second pitch was hit off the left-field fence by José Tena, ending the game.
A night after the Angels were held to two runs in a 10-inning loss in the series opener, it seemed like they were again the team that scored 17 runs in the last two games in New York.
In the second, two straight hits, a walk and a sacrifice fly produced a run. They scored a run on three singles in the fourth.
And in the fifth, Zach Neto led off with a tie-breaking homer, his 17th of the season. Logan O’Hoppe — who had been a week-long slump — followed with the first of his two walks. He scored on a Kevin Pillar double to put the Angels up 4-2.
After that, though, all the Angels could muster was a Jo Adell single in the eighth and Neto’s double in the ninth.
In the 10th, they moved their automatic runner to third, but then Anthony Rendon struck out and Adell hit a popup.
Despite the four runs on 11 hits, the Angels could have had much more if they’d been better than 1 for 14 with runners in scoring position. They were 1 for 13 on Friday night.
“That’s not too good,” manager Ron Washington said. “That’s not too good. I don’t know if you give credit to their pitchers over there to to shut us down like that, or we just didn’t have good at bats.”
Neto had the best offensive night, with three hits. Taylor Ward, Anthony Rendon and Adell had two hits apiece.
“it’s a tough game,” Neto said. “It’s part of it. We’re gonna have our ups. We’re gonna have our downs. Right now we’re just trying to find that clutch hit. Not only everybody else, but myself as well. I’m trying to try to be consistent with that as well. It’ll come to us. It didn’t come our way yesterday, didn’t come our way today. But the great thing about this game is we have tomorrow. We get to come here and fight for a win and try not to get swept.”
The pitching staff needed some more support on a night that they turned to Griffin Canning to give the bullpen a break.
Thanks to Wednesday’s doubleheader, six of the Angels relievers had worked two of the previous three days. Closer Ben Joyce was unavailable after pitching both Thursday and Friday.
Canning gave up four runs in seven innings. The final two came home in the seventh, an inning that started with shortstop Neto failing to make the play on a one-hopper that skipped just past him into center field.
“He can make it, but he went at it wrong,” Washington said. “That’s a ball you attack moving forward. You don’t attack it from the side. It’s easy to say afterwards. I know how it’s supposed to be done. It’s easy to say afterwards, but if he’d attacked that ball from the front, it would have stuck in glove, but he attacked it from the side.”
Neto admitted that he “definitely read it wrong” and he said he “felt pretty bad” after the mistake led to a run.
“You learn from it and just keep going,” Neto said.
Canning could have bailed out his shortstop through the rest of the inning, but he gave up two more hits, allowing the Nats to tie the game.
Despite the four runs, Canning was encouraged by working seven innings. Also, he needed just 88 pitches for 21 outs, thanks to first-pitch strikes to 20 of 25 hitters.
“Its a tough way to finish,” Canning said. “Leaves a bad taste in your mouth. But try to keep trusting the process. A lot of positives to take from it.”
