Angels Get Swept Out To Coronado Bay With Third Straight Loss to the Padres, 5-3

Mercifully, the Angels final game of the series in San Diego was upon us. First, the injury bug continued to strike our stars, then the presumed powerhouse offense that has been asleep most of the year picked their friends up the 5 to wake them up, because of course. Patrick Sandoval went up against Seth Lugo of the Friars.

Sandy blinked first in the opening frame. After a single was sandwiched between two walks, Sandoval attempted a pickoff throw with Cronenworth at the plate, but he threw the ball away, allowing Tatis Jr. to score. 1-0 Pads.

In the second inning, after Renfroe doubled and Thaiss walked Luis Rengifo singled Hunter home to knot the game at 1 with 2 outs, thanks in part to Tatis bobbling the ball before unleashing a throw when it appeared Renfroe was going to stop at third base.

Sandy proceeded to send San Diego down in order in the bottom of the inning.

In the third, Mickey Moniak led off with a single, then moved up a base at a time after two groundouts. Then Jo “The Hero” Adell had an RBI double to give the Angels a 2-1 lead.

In the bottom of the third, Ha-Seong Kim walked and a clutch Manny Machado later singled him home to tie the game at 2.

After both teams went down in order in the fourth inning and had no scores in the fifth, the Angels went down 1-2-3 in the top of the sixth. But big bad Machado came through again in the bottom of the sixth leading off the inning with a home run against new Angel pitcher Jose Soriano.

San Diego reliever Nick Martinez took over in the 7th inning, but Matt Thaiss was NOT nice to him. He smacked a long ball to right field on the first pitch of the inning to bring the Angels even.

Rengifo followed that up with a walk, but the next three batters made outs bringing us to the 7th inning stretch all tied up.

Angels reliever Jacob Webb took over in the 7th and struck out the first batter, but a double, intentional walk, and conventional walk loaded the bases. With Xander Bogaerts up at the plate, the home plate umpire didn’t feel like giving Webb two straight borderline pitches, prompting Phil Nevin to get into a nice argument with the ump and get tossed out. But, after the ump gave a sympathy strike, Bogaerts grounded out to the pitcher allowing the go ahead run to score from third. 4-3 Padres.

In the top of the 8th, Tom Cosgrove blanked the “heart” of the Angels lineup consisting of Shohei, Adell, and Moustakas. Chris Devenski wasn’t so lucky in the bottom of the inning. It started off promising when he got two straight groundouts to first base, but what followed was a walk, a single, and two more walks, the last being with the bases loaded, giving San Diego an insurance run. 5-3 Padres.

Josh Hader came in to close the game for the third straight game and he did so successfully, working around a Ward walk. Angels lose again and are now only one game over .500 going into the last 2 games of the “half” at Dodger Stadium. Boooooooo!!!