ANAHEIM, Calif. — Things unraveled quickly for Yusei Kikuchi and the Angels on Thursday night.
Holding onto a 1-0 lead, Kikuchi was one strike away from completing five scoreless innings before disaster struck.
Kikuchi surrendered four straight hits, including two home runs, to give the Seattle Mariners (55-48) the edge to take the series opener from the Angels (49-54), 4-2.
After getting two quick outs and getting Julio Rodríguez down in an 0-2 count, Kikuchi couldn’t put the inning away. Rodríguez sent a 1-2 fastball the other way for a solo shot to tie the game at 1-1.
Cal Raleigh then beat out an infield single and Randy Arozarena hit a laser over the left field wall to give the Mariners a 3-1 lead. Mitch Garver then doubled to chase Kikuchi out of the game and the Angels brought in Connor Brogdon to get the final out of the inning.
“The pitches just leaked over the heart of the plate,” Kikuchi said through an interpreter.
Before the two-out collapse, things were going relatively smoothly for Kikuchi. He had given up just three hits and two walks up to that point and navigated through some trouble early on.
Kikuchi also didn’t get much help from his offense, as the Angels scored just two runs on seven hits. The Angels did a sufficient job at hitting with runners in scoring position, hitting 2-for-7 in those situations.
The problem was getting those runners into scoring position. The bats couldn’t get into a rhythm and string together hits after the first inning.
“(Logan) Evans came out, and he threw a good game,” Nolan Schanuel said. “He was hitting his spots. Hats off to a guy that performs when he needs to, and he did a great job today, so I think that was a big part, and then once we got him out of the game, (the offense) started rolling.”
With one out in the first inning, Mike Trout doubled down the left field line and scored on a two-strike single from Schanuel. Taylor Ward followed with a single to make it first and second, but Yoán Moncada grounded into an inning-ending double play.
The Angels failed to get another hit until the seventh inning, when Luis Rengifo singled with two outs. Rengifo reached second base because of a balk committed by Carlos Vargas, and then scored on a single from Zach Neto.
The Angels made things interesting in the ninth inning, though. Rengifo reached on a fielder’s choice, Neto singled and Trout drew his third walk of the night to load the bases with two outs and trailing by two. Schanuel swung at the first pitch he saw and hit a line drive into shallow left field, but not shallow enough, as Arozarena made the catch while falling to his knees.
This loss is the Angels’ fourth in a row and now puts the Angels five and a half games out of the last wild card spot. With the trade deadline exactly one week away, every game has bigger implications on the trajectory of the rest of the season.
“I do think there's an atmosphere of, 'hey, these games matter a little bit more than maybe prior,’ but in the same breath, you have to keep it in perspective,” interim manager Ray Montgomery said. “The deadline's only a piece of what we're doing. There's still a long way to go in the season… I like the way the guys responded. We just couldn't come up with the hit when we needed it.”