Ninth inning meltdown spells defeat for Angels despite Meckler's heroics

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Wade Meckler was one of the hottest hitters in in the Angels' lineup when his season nearly came to an end on August 20 against the Houston Astros. 

In his third at-bat of the game, Meckler was struck by a loose 90.6 MPH sinker that connected squarely with the base of Meckler's helmet and took him out of the game, sending him on a journey through concussion protocols. 

For the first couple of days after the hit by pitch, Meckler suffered form headaches pressure in his head and trouble sleeping, all the "textbook symptoms of a concussion," as he described it, but soon enough those symptoms cleared up and Meckler was able to clear testing to get him back on the field, first in two rehab starts, then back at the Big A.

Return of the Meck

In his first game back at the Major League level on Friday against the Philadelphia Phillies, Meckler didn't waste any time getting back to business.

On the first Big League pitch he'd seen in nearly two weeks, Meckler ripped a single up the middle to drive in Zach Neto and put the Angels ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the first.

"Extended time off, wanted to get an early swing off and feel where my barrel was at and feel solid contact," Meckler said. "First pitch is over the plate, so just a good swing on it."

That one RBI from Meckler was the extent of the earned run scoring from the Angels on Friday, though they took advantage of two wild pitches put three runs on the board in total in the bottom of the first. 

Streaky hitting continues

But the bats went cold after that. The Angels finished with just three runs and three hits in a continuation of a worrying trend of getting hot early for the Halos before going quiet the rest of the game. 

"That was tough. We had a chance there in the beginning of the game... We had a chance to keep adding on. Obviously we didn't," Suzuki said."

Still, those three runs were enough for most of the game with Reid Detmers on the mound. He went six innings once again and while he wasn't getting as many strikeouts as usual, something he chalked up to the Phillies' willingness to bunt against him, he held Philadelphia to just one earned run on eight hits without giving up any walks. 

The one run that the Phillies did score came on bunt from Derek Hill in the fifth inning up the first base side Both Detmers and first baseman Vaughn Grissom charged after the ball, leaving first base open for Hill to reach safely while Alec Bohm came around to score and make it a 3-1 game. 

"It's just a hard situation there... Griss [Grissom] wants to come in and I understand why he's coming in," Detmers said. "I kind of talked to him after; I was like, 'the only we had is if you stay on the bag and I flipped it to you....' It is what it is."

That run didn't necessarily hurt Detmers' start, but it did put an end to his streak of 20 consecutive scoreless innings, the longest in his career and the second-longest of the season for an Angels pitcher behind Jose Soriano's streak of 25.1 scoreless innings earlier in the season. 

Ninth inning issues

The Angels' lead held all the way into the ninth inning and with Ben Joyce coming to the mound, things looked good to finish. But Joyce, who has been sharp with the command of his 100+ MPH fastballs all season since he recovered from labrum surgery, couldn't find the zone.

He walked two batters and hit another to load the bases with one out and had had thrown a wild pitch before loading the bases. He would have given up the lead outright after giving up a long fly ball to Bryson Stott, but Meckler had other plans. 

Meckler tracked the ball all the way to warning track and with just wall behind him, leaped up and nearly flipped over the wall himself to rob Stott of as go-ahead home run and put an exclamation point on what was already a productive return to the field for him. 

"It was an incredible play. It's awesome. The guys behind you make a play like that, you want to do something back. It sucks to walk the next guy and obviously end the way it did."

Pinch hit problems

Meckler's efforts were in vain though. After Joyce loaded the bases, Suzuki pulled him, an effort that Suzuki said was to "protect him" with his pitch count already at 26, and brought in Sammy Peralta to try and close the game with two outs. 

Peralta didn't fare much better and gave up a go-ahead grand slam to pinch-hitter Edmundo Sosa, his first career grand slam and the first two out, go-ahead grand slam for the Phillies since Shane Victorino hit one in 2009, to put the Phillies ahead 5-3. 

That was enough. The Angels went scoreless in the bottom of the ninth and dropped the game for their fifth-straight loss and 11th loss this season when leading after the eighth inning.

"That is definitely not good, but at the same time these guys are resilient... We never give up," Suzuki said.