Angels’ rally falls short against Cardinals, 7-6

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- In a game full of minor mistakes snowballing into major ones for the Angels, the Halos just couldn’t stop themselves from getting in their own way in a 7-6 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals at Angel Stadium Tuesday. 

In search of spark late in the game, Zach Neto entered the game, despite Angels manager Ron Washington saying earlier in the day Neto was going to take the day off for rest, in the 8th inning in place of Tucker and hit a double into right field, with Neto marking the tying run in scoring position.

Back-to-back walks from Cardinals reliever Jojo Romero loaded the bases with one out and Luis Guillorme coming up to the plate, seemingly putting the Angels in prime position to retake the lead.

Then, a squeeze play attempt failed before it even got started, with Zach Neto getting tagged out before even coming close to home for the second out. 

“I didn’t want him to hit into a double play,” Washington said of the decision to go for the squeeze play. “[Guillorme] can handle the bat, he didn’t do the job, it wasn’t anything I did wrong. He didn’t do the job.”

Immediately afterwards, Guillorme struck out swinging to end the inning, an anecdote of how the evening went for the Halos.

After three innings the Angels found themselves trailing by five runs to the Cardinals, less than 24 hours removed from allowing 10 unanswered runs in a 10-5 loss.

A wild pitch from Reid Detmers put the first run on the board for the Cardinals, then a bad throw by Cole Tucker from third base to home doubled the lead to 2-0 in the second.

”It was frustrating, obviously,” Detmers said. “It comes more down to execution, I think they’re the right pitches.” 

Detmers finished with eight hits and four earned runs in five innings of work and was able to settle in to not allow any runs in the fourth and fifth innings.

”The results weren’t there, but there was a lot of good stuff that came out of it,” Detmers said.

When it was the Cardinals turn to bat again in the third, Pedro Pages had his first hit in the majors, a three-run RBI double that ballooned the visitors lead, 5-0.

It looked like the game was over before some fans even made it to their seats.

Until seemingly out of nowhere, the Angels’ offense came alive.

It began with a triple from Tucker in the bottom of the 3rd, moments afterwards, Nolan Shanuel’s RBI single brought Tucker home to put the Halos on the board, 5-1.

Logan O’Hoppe hit his third home-run of the year, a 3-run shot that cut the deficit to just one run in the fourth, 5-4.

The following inning Nolan Schanuel reached home thanks to a Taylor Ward sac-fly to tie the game at 5 runs apiece.

Two innings later, LHP Amir Garrett would come out of the bullpen and allow a 2-run home run to the first batter he faced, Alec Burleson, which regave the Cardinals the lead, 7-5.

Kevin Pillar hit an RBI single which brought Ward home to make it a one run game heading into the 8th. Pillar had three hits against the Cardinals Tuesday and his second hit marked his 13th RBI since joining the Angels last month.

The spark would die out afterwards, with Romero able to finish the save and give the victory to the Cardinals.

”I thought we did a good job of battling and staying in the game,” Washington said. “We got beat.”