Angels unable to close the deal
Alvarez gets no help from defense and gives up three runs in the ninth inning.
The Angels appear to have struck gold with Bud Norris this year. In January, they handed the 32-year-old a measly invitation to spring training. The longtime starter won a spot in their bullpen and quickly ascended into their vacant closer’s role. He has nearly invariably succeeded.
But on Thursday night at Angel Stadium, manager Mike Scioscia chose lefthander Jose Alvarez to preserve a one-run lead, not Norris, and his decision resulted in the Angels’ 4-2 defeat to Minnesota. Hampered by Jefry Marte’s inability to catch a simple popup, Alvarez ceded the lead to the Twins and took the loss.
Scioscia attributed his decision to lingering right knee soreness that forced Norris out of an appearance last week.
“When Bud’s totally back to where he needs to be,” the manager said, “he’ll get
some full innings.”
Norris said he was “working through some things, for sure,” but declined to say whether he thought his workload needed monitoring.
“I don’t know if that’s necessary or not,” Norris said.
In four more bids at home run No. 600, Albert Pujols struck out, singled, grounded out, and flied out. He has three more games to reach that milestone at home before he must take the show to Detroit, where Jim Thome reached 600 six years ago.
Struggling to command his powerful fastball in the second inning, Angels starter Alex Meyer hung a 1-and-2 curveball to Miguel Sano, who lofted it for a home run to center. Meyer then walked Max Kepler on four pitches and threw wildly on a pickoff attempt, allowing Kepler to take second. Meyer escaped the inning with two flyouts and a strikeout, and tiptoed through the next four innings.
When Jorge Polanco led off the seventh with a single, Meyer exited in favor of rookie reliever Keynan Middleton, who retired the three Twins he faced. David Hernandez handled the eighth before Alvarez entered for the ninth.
He retired the Twins’ first hitter on a hard line drive back to him, then induced a popup that Marte missed and yielded a double to Eddie Rosario. Two runs scored on a Jason Castro single, and, for good measure, Norris walked in another run when he finally took the mound and threw 23 pitches.
The Angels (28-29) managed little in the first three innings against Twins rookie left-hander Adalberto Mejia, who was making his sixth career start.
They then notched consecutive singles to begin the fourth before Marte tapped a ball to third. Sano fielded it, stepped on third and threw to second baseman Brian Dozier, who quickly threw to first base to finish the triple play. It was the first triple play the Angels had hit into in 13 years, and the first the Twins had turned in 11 years. The Angels have been involved in 16 triple plays in their history, and their opponent has been the Twins in six of those instances.
The Angels scored their first run on a Kole Calhoun home run in the sixth and challenged for another in the seventh. Marte walked and Martin Maldonado singled, putting the go-ahead run in scoring position without an out. Then Danny Espinosa and Eric Young Jr. struck out. After Ben Revere singled off reliever Tyler Duffey’s glove to load the bases, Andrelton Simmons took two strikes and popped out harmlessly. He hurled his bat in disgust.
Calhoun lashed another home run to begin the eighth inning, again on the first pitch from a left-hander, this time one named Taylor Rogers. That concluded the Angels’ scoring.
The Twins acquired Mejia and discarded Meyer four days apart last year, around the nonwaiver trade deadline. Remarkably, both men pitched precisely six innings, threw 84 pitches and 51 strikes, and exited after facing one batter in the seventh. Both yielded five hits and one run. Both walked two. Mejia struck out five and Meyer four.