ANAHEIM – The recipe for a sweep was pretty simple.
“Their starters were crushing our hitters and their hitters were crushing our starters,” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “That’s how it was.”
The Angels lost 9-2 to the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night, sweeping the three-game series. The Angels never had a hit with a runner in scoring position in any of the games and scored their only runs on four solo home runs and a sacrifice fly.
“I just couldn’t get anything going,” Washington said. “And the last two starters (Kevin Gausman on Tuesday and Jose Berrios on Wednesday) have already gotten a few innings under their belts. If you give them a head start and they’re going against a young offense, they’ll get to the end.”
The Blue Jays took the lead on Wednesday by putting left-hander Tyler Anderson, the Angels’ top pitcher, under pressure.
Anderson allowed seven runs in 5⅔ innings, the most of the season, with five of those coming on a two-run homer by Ernie Clement in the second inning and a three-run homer by Daulton Varsho in the fifth inning.
“When he left something over the plate, they didn’t miss it,” Washington said. “They know he’s a master of change of pace, and you can see they were in the box and they didn’t jump out. They waited to see the ball and swung. They had a good approach against him tonight. Really. They had a really good approach against him. When he made a mistake, they didn’t miss it.”
Anderson also managed eight strikeouts, just two shy of his season high, making it a bit of a puzzling night for him.
He said some of the hits and misses were due to throws where he would have preferred soft contact for an out, but instead the hitters stayed in the box, giving them more opportunity to do damage.
“I felt a lot better when it worked out,” Anderson said. “It sounds stupid to say this, but I feel like I pitched better than the result. Basically, I think if I throw the way I throw in most games now, I’ll end up being pretty good. It just seemed like the opposite of timely hitting was untimely pitching. The hits they had were all timely.”
It was all part of a miserable night for the Angels. After winning two straight series against the New York Mets and New York Yankees, the Angels lost five of six games to the Washington Nationals and Blue Jays – two teams with records well below .500.
Other than hitting Anderson hard, the Angels’ lineup could do little against Berrios.
The Angels began the game with fewer players because Washington had decided to give Zach Neto, Logan O’Hoppe and Jo Adell days off at the same time. Washington wanted them all to benefit from consecutive days off, including the scheduled day off on Thursday.
This allowed Matt Thaiss to start as catcher and he scored the Angels’ only run with his second home run of the season. He also had a single.
Thaiss was used sparingly in the first half because O’Hoppe started so many games behind the plate, but he performed so well in limited appearances that Washington is now giving him more playing time, including as a DH.
Thaiss has a .342 batting average with a .909 OPS in 46 at-bats since July 3.
“I’m very impressed because Matt comes out every day and works,” Washington said this week. “That’s one thing I notice about him. He works his ass off every day and he’s prepared. That’s something he’s had to learn, too. He wasn’t like that at the beginning of the year, but now he’s learning that he can go out and do whatever he can to keep his body and mind in shape, and that’s how he gets to the stadium.
“And he’s proving to me that I can put him against left-handers. I’m excited about it. I’m excited for him to keep going like this, but doing what he does. And it’s a growth period for him.”
Besides Thaiss, Taylor Ward was the only Angel with a hit, hitting a double.
The Angels went hitless in seven at-bats with runners in scoring position, making them just 3 of 53 in that situation over the last six games.
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