The Los Angeles Angels got a good night at the mound from their starter — Alex Cobb — but did themselves no favors by committing four costly errors. Their mistakes lifted the Tampa Bay Rays to victory, as the Angels fall 8-3 and drop to 13-15 overall, two games below .500.
Cobb got off to a good start on the mound, something he desperately needed. However, a Jose Iglesias error allowed Manuel Margot to get on base with two outs. Then, a David Fletcher error got Margot all the way home from first. The Rays led the Angels 1-0 midway through one.
After a second, third, and fourth inning with minimal action, Randy Arozarena got on base with a single to left field in the top of the fifth. He then attempted to steal second, and was allowed to do that and more thanks to a bad throw from Max Stassi. Arozarena took third and scored on a groundout from Austin Meadows. Midway through five, the Angels trailed 2-0.
Steve Cishek was the first reliever in the game for the Angels. The lead-off man for the Rays in the sixth — Yandy Diaz — hit a single off of him to get things going for Tampa Bay. Joey Wendle got himself a single as well to put runners at first and second with no outs.
Alex Claudio was brought in to replace Cishek after he record his only out of the night. After a long at bat against Kevin Kiermaier that saw the runners advance to second and third on a passed ball by Stassi, he hit a two run double softly into right field. The Rays extended their lead to 4-0.
The Angels finally got on the board in the bottom of the sixth via the home run ball. Trout hit a moonshot to shallow left field to cut the deficit to 4-1. It was their only run of the inning, however, as they went to the seventh down three.
The Rays got their four run lead right back in the top of the seventh, as Austin Meadows crushed a ball off of Ben Rowen to make it 5-1.
Meadows faced Rowen once again in the eighth inning with two runners on base. He got the exact same result as the previous inning, but this time hitting a three-run home run. The Angels deficit was extended to seven, 8-1.
Fletcher and Shohei Ohtani both got on base to begin the ninth inning. After Trout struck out and Jared Walsh advanced the runners with a groundout, Iglesias got them both home with an RBI single. He was tagged out trying to go to second, but the runs scored to make it 8-3 going to the ninth.
After an unceremonious ending, the final score stood at 8-3 with the Angels losing their third consecutive game and falling behind 0-2 in their series with the Rays.
Looking ahead
Shohei Ohtani will be the starting pitcher when the Angels take on the Rays on Wednesday in game three of four. Ryan Yarbrough is the projected starter for Tampa Bay — but they have not officially stated anything — with first pitch at 6:38 p.m. PT.
