Kochanowicz struggles to settle in as Angels drop the series in Tampa

ST. PETERSBURG -- The Angels spent Sunday at Tropicana Field chasing the kind of consistency they found in Saturday’s outburst. Instead, they ran into a different version of the Rays: quieter offensively, sharper on defense, and patient enough to wait for the Angels to give innings away.

It started with a familiar pattern for Jack Kochanowicz. Jonathan Aranda jumped him early with a first-inning home run, a low pitch that didn’t miss enough of the zone and ended up in the right-field seats before the Angels’ defense had fully settled in.

Kochanowicz briefly steadied himself after that, even working through a second inning that threatened to spiral. Two runners reached, Yandy Díaz came up with two outs, and he induced a ground ball to escape. For a moment, it looked like the outing might stabilize.

It didn’t hold.

The strike zone shrank in real time. Walks stacked up. The Rays didn’t need loud contact to build pressure. They just kept taking pitches. By the third inning, Kochanowicz had issued his fourth walk, and the bases were full when the Angels turned to Mitch Farris. Tampa Bay nudged the lead to 3-1, not with a swing that changed the game, but with a lineup that refused to give at-bats away.

Kochanowicz’s stretch has become part of the larger concern. He entered the day with a 3.05 ERA across his first seven starts. Over his last five, that number has ballooned to 9.27. Sunday added another short outing to that trend, finishing 2.1 innings with three runs allowed and four walks.

Even so, the Rays didn’t run away with it in the way the early innings suggested they might. That had less to do with command and more to do with defense showing up in bursts around him.

José Siri set the tone. Facing his former club, he robbed Taylor Walls of a grand slam in the third inning, tracking a deep drive to left and reaching over the wall to take it back. It was the kind of play that erased four runs in a single jump, and it immediately shifted the feel of the inning. Later, he cut off another hard-hit Yandy Díaz ball in the fourth, turning what could have been extra bases into a routine out.

That sequence mattered because the Rays were creating traffic everywhere else. Every Tampa Bay hitter reached base at least once by the seventh inning, a slow grind that kept the Angels under pressure even when the scoreboard didn’t fully reflect it.

The Angels’ own defense alternated between sharp and loose. Zack Neto couldn’t finish a double-play attempt cleanly in the infield. A high throw and a missed tag erased what should have been a clean inning-ending sequence. Earlier, a pop-up drifted into the Tropicana Field roof and dropped harmlessly away from play, another small break that didn’t land in their favor.

Still, the game stayed within reach because the offense never completely disappeared.

Logan O’Hoppe provided most of the resistance. He doubled off the wall earlier, then turned on a pitch later for a home run that pulled the Angels within 3-2 in the seventh. It was the kind of swing that briefly reset the game’s tension, especially in a lineup that had only struck out three times to that point but still couldn’t fully string innings together.

That disconnect showed up again in the eighth.

Vaughn Grissom reached on a soft hit to short. Jorge Soler followed with a clean single into right, putting two on with one out. Jo Adell then lined out, and Grissom was doubled off second base to end the inning. No collapse, no dramatic misplay — just an inning that ended as soon as it looked like it might turn.

Tampa Bay made sure that moment mattered. They answered immediately with a bases-loaded walk later in the game, and by the seventh, every Rays hitter had reached base at least once.

The Angels finished with nine hits. The contact was there. The sequencing wasn’t.

Kurt Suzuki’s group has shown stretches where they can pile on runs quickly, but those innings usually come when traffic turns into clusters. Sunday never allowed that version to emerge.

Instead, it became a game defined by isolated moments. From Siri’s robbery and O’Hoppe’s homer, to Neto’s botched double play and a Rays lineup that kept turning walks into leverage situations.

The Halos will look to piece together some of those isolated moments as they return to Anaheim this week, opening the month of June with a three-game set against the Colorado Rockies. Jose Soriano will toe the rubber for the Angels, as the Rockies counter with Kyle Freeland.