The Los Angeles Angels fell to the Texas Rangers on Tuesday in a 7-3 loss, their 62nd of the season and seventh in their last 10 games.
Lucas Giolito made his 25th start of the year, and through two innings, the 29-year-old had things under control. But after allowing a leadoff walk to Rangers outfielder Travis Jankowski, he’d surrender two extra-base hits, putting the score at 3-0.
The Rangers would tally one more run against Giolito in his six complete innings of work, tossing 110 pitches through his outing. An inability to limit his own damage is an area that has plagued his short tenure with the Angels, and his warts have usual sparked up early in games, per Jalyn Smoot of MLB.com:
“It’s almost like the third inning is cursed or something,” said Giolito, who also yielded three runs in the third inning of an Aug. 8 win against the Giants. “My sequencing could have been better. I just need to execute better.
“I’m finding that as the game gets going, my stuff is getting better and I’m executing better. So, it seems like I come out pretty strong, and then in the middle it gets a bit iffy, and then I finish strong. So, I think it’s about time I put it together through a whole start and then build off of that.”
During the third inning in his four starts with the Angels, Giolito has allowed 10 earned runs on 13 hits, three of which via the home run ball. There is some merit to his peculiar line during the third frame, but is more of a coincidence than anything.
“Baseball is a very tough sport,” Giolito said. “It’s a game of failure. It’s unfortunate how things have played out [recently], but at the same time, I know that everybody on this team is putting in their best effort. It just hasn’t worked out well.
“So, to turn things around, we’re going to have to play really, really good baseball. That’s all we can do.”
The Angels have no choice but to flip a switch, and it really has to come from all areas of the group. Giolito being one of them, and his 8.14 ERA with his new club hasn’t provided them with ‘ace level’ production.
A main concern is that he’ll begin to press, and get out of his usual pathways to success because of his continued hiccups. Winning is a cure for all, but the right-hander must find a way to not only string together a positive start or two, but hope the rest of the roster is up to par when that happens.
Patrick Sandoval takes blame in Angels blowout loss
Coming into Monday’s start, Patrick Sandoval had posted a 1.86 ERA in his previous five starts, going 2-1 and providing manager Phil Nevin with another stable option in his starting rotation.
Unfortunately for Sandoval, his command did him no favors, and after allowing five runs (four earned), he was pulled after just 2.2 innings pitched.
Going on to lose the game 12-0 was a continuation of Sandoval’s poor performance as a whole this season, something he put on himself as a key reason in the defeat.
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