ANAHEIM, Calif. — Baseball is a funny sport, and sometimes it doesn't make sense. Just ask Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman.
Hoffman had only given up two earned runs in 16.1 innings pitched heading into the Blue Jays' series in Anaheim that started on Tuesday. In two appearances so far against the offensively sputtering Angels, he's given up a combined six earned runs while only recording two outs. Each outing lasted just one-third of an inning, and he gave up three earned runs.
The latest meltdown occurred on Wednesday night in the bottom of the ninth inning, in a save situation as the Blue Jays were winning, 4-2. Hoffman was 7-for-7 in save opportunities heading into the game, but center fielder Kyren Paris led off the inning with a four-pitch walk, which shortstop Zach Neto and first baseman Nolan Schanuel each followed with singles to load the bases with no outs.
After striking out left fielder Taylor Ward on three pitches, Hoffman had to face right fielder Jorge Soler. Hoffman threw three straight sliders, and the third one caught the middle of the plate, which Soler sent on a line down the left field line. Blue Jays left fielder Jonatan Clase misplayed the ball, and all three base runners scored for a 5-4 walk-off win for the Angels.
"We came into the ninth inning losing, and we won," Soler said through an interpreter. "The team feels great, especially when we're facing one of the best closers in the big leagues."
Even with the ninth-inning heroics, the Angels' offense still has work to do. The Angels left 10 runners on base and were just 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position. Twice, the Angels had runners in scoring position with no outs and failed to cash them in.
On the mound for the Angels, left-hander Yusei Kikuchi put together a second consecutive solid start, going six innings while only giving up one earned run on five hits and striking out six batters. Kikuchi threw 91 pitches, and 70 of them were strikes. He used his slider to get ahead of hitters, and it resulted in 14 out of 23 batters faced reaching two-strike counts.
"The back-door slider is really good to get ahead in counts," Kikuchi said through an interpreter. "I feel like my curveball and changeup were really good as well, so I was able to use all my pitches effectively today."
The three other runs that the Blue Jays tacked on all came in the seventh inning against left-hander Reid Detmers, who faced three hitters and gave up three hits before getting taken out of the game. All three runs came in to score, which makes it 12 earned runs given up with only one out recorded in his last three appearances.
"I felt like that was a perfect situation to get him going," manager Ron Washington said. "At the bottom of the order, maybe he'd come in, get his three outs, and then he'd start feeling much better about himself. But it didn't work out. We just got to keep going to the drawing board and try to pull out of him what we know he has inside of him."
The Angels are now 15-20 and will have right-hander José Soriano on the mound facing right-hander Chris Bassitt for the series finale on Thursday.