Mayers gives up two-run lead in eighth, Angels lose after Quintana’s solid start
ANAHEIM » Mike Mayers, who had been the Angels’ most consistent reliever since the start of last season, had a bad day on Wednesday afternoon.
Mayers entered with a two-run lead in the eighth inning and proceeded to give up back-to-back homers, including a three-run shot. Junior Guerra then gave up two more ninth-inning runs in what became the Angels’ 7-4 loss to the Texas Rangers.
The Angels led 3-1 after five strong innings from José Quintana and seven outs from rookie Chris Rodriguez, who was pulled after a walk.
Manager Joe Maddon summoned Mayers, who brought an 0.93 ERA to the mound with slugger Joey Gallo coming to the plate. Maddon likes Mayers
against lefties because of his cutter, and two of the next three hitters were lefties.
Mayers walked the lefthanded Gallo, gave up a three-run home run to right-handed Adolis Garcia, and then gave up a solo homer to lefty Nate Lowe.
“The walk to Gallo was big and the pitch to Garcia was just in the wrong spot, and the pitch to Lowe,” Maddon said. “That’s his spot right there: Gallo, Garcia and Lowe. And it didn’t work out.”
Mayers had thrown 27 pitches over 1-2/3 innings the night before, but he had pitched just once in the seven days prior to that. Maddon said Mayers had assured him he was fine.
“You trust the guy,” Maddon said. “Don’t forget he had three days off before that. There’s all kinds of considerations. When you’re talking to a veteran pitcher, you listen, and I listened to him.”
The late bullpen failure cost Quintana a victory on a day that his move to the other side of the rubber proved to be successful.
After walking seven and allowing nine earned runs in five innings in his first two starts, Quintana switched from the third base side of the rubber to the first base side. He allowed one run in five innings on Wednesday.
“It feels great,” Quintana said. “It was way better than last time . ... It was a good adjustment to move to the first base side. My fastball in to righties is much better.”
He began the game with a perfect first inning on just 12 pitches, then cruised for much of the afternoon.
There were still some issues, including an eight-batter span in the third and fourth when he walked four, but he escaped without significant damage. He got Eli White looking at a third strike to strand two in the fourth.
Quintana finished his day with a perfect fifth inning, including two of his eight strikeouts.
“Overall, I thought he was better,” Maddon said. “The fastball was up to 92 a lot, which I like. Overall, he was pretty darn good and had a chance to get to the win.”
Certainly, the Angels could have also provided a little more cushion for their pitchers. They managed all their runs on solo homers from Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, Justin Upton and José Iglesias.
Ohtani’s homer came in his first game starting at DH the day after he had pitched. It was also the 100th homer of his career, including 48 in Japan.
The Angels had an opportunity to break the game open in the seventh, but Trout grounded out to leave the bases loaded.
Upton left the game with a cramp in his leg, but Maddon said after the game that he’s fine.