All three Angels hitters struck out when they had a chance to get their automatic runner home in the top of the 10th, then Carlos Estevez gave up a run-scoring single to the second hitter he faced in the bottom of the inning for a 6-5 loss.
HOUSTON — As Ron Washington dissected the Angels’ 6-5, 10-inning loss to the Houston Astros on Tuesday night, the Angels manager kept coming back to one point over and over.
“They beat us tonight,” said Washington, who is not shy about holding his own team accountable when they haven’t played up to his expectations. “It wasn’t like we kicked the ball all over the place and made mistakes and stuff like that. It was a solid ballgame. Somebody had to win and somebody had to lose. In the end, they got us.”
The Astros, despite their surprising 22-27 record, have a much better roster than the Angels, and they showed why on Tuesday night. They showed it with the depth of their lineup and with the ability to use their $95 million closer for two innings, in the ninth and 10th.
Josh Hader retired all six Angels he faced, including three consecutive strikeouts with the automatic runner aboard in extra innings.
In the bottom of the inning, the Angels intentionally walked Yordan Alvarez. Closer Carlos Estevez got Alex Bregman on a fly ball, but it moved both runners up 90 feet. Jeremy Peña then punched a single into right, knocking in the winning run.
It was the first time all night that the Astros had a lead, but they had come back to tie the Angels on three separate occasions in a game that was mostly a battle of homers.
Luis Rengifo hit a two-run homer in the top of the first and then Kyle Tucker and Alvarez hit back-to-back homers in the bottom of the inning.
After the Angels took a 4-2 lead in the fourth on RBI hits by Zach Neto and Rengifo, the Astros tied it in the sixth on Jon Singleton’s two-run homer.
The teams traded homers again in the seventh, with Kevin Pillar putting the Angels on top and then Tucker tying it.
The last two Astros homers came against relievers Carson Fulmer, in the sixth, and Luis Garcia, in the seventh.
After a 13-inning game on Saturday and then close victories on Sunday and Monday, the Angels’ bullpen was gassed. That’s why Washington went to Fulmer, who had mostly pitched in low-leverage spots, to hold a 4-2 lead in the sixth.
“I used him tonight because we had been using the regular guys very, very often,” Washington said. “Someone else had to step up to try to get us through the sixth and seventh inning. … We just couldn’t keep going to the same people over and over and over. We felt like Fulmer could do it.”
The bullpen might have been saved some work, but starter Griffin Canning could only get through five innings on 89 pitches, which he attributed to the difficulty of navigating the Astros’ lineup.
“They make it tough,” Canning said. “They’re ready to swing first pitch so it’s tough to jump ahead of them. You’ve got to make a good quality pitch on the first pitch. They foul pitches off. They can do damage. One through nine, they just don’t give away any at-bats so it makes it tough.”
Canning said the pitches that Tucker and Alvarez hit out in the first were good pitches.
“They hit good pitches,” Canning said. “Tip your cap to them. They’re great hitters.”
Canning also questioned in how many ballparks they would have even been homers. Tucker’s fly ball to left would not have gone out in any other park, and Alvarez’s homer to right would have been out in eight other ballparks.
After the first, Canning didn’t allow another run, but he dealt with runners in each inning.
The Angels turned double plays to help him out of the second and fourth innings. In the fifth, he had to deal with Alvarez, representing the tying run, with two outs. Alvarez fought him through an eight-pitch at-bat before eventually striking out on a slider.
The only two strikeouts of the game for Canning were Alvarez and José Altuve in the fifth inning.
Canning now has a 1.99 ERA in his last four starts.
“I thought he was outstanding,” Washington said of Canning. “He really was. He fought for five innings and those guys battled him. To go through that one to five they have in the lineup and come off the field with a lead, he did a real good job.”
