Will Angels stick with status quo?

Three mistakes lead to four unearned runs in blowout loss to Rockies in setback.

With trade deadline arriving Friday, GM Perry Minasian has some decisions to make.

Coming into Tuesday night’s game, the Angels ranked 29th in defensive runs above average, a catch-all advanced statistic meant to measure overall defensive value. On this night, though, fancy stats weren’t necessary to explain what the Angels lacked on defense. That much was clear.

Three errors leading to four unearned runs early propelled the Rockies to a 12-3 win over the Angels. The loss drops them to 50-50 at the 100-game mark, another setback during a week in which the team must make decisions about where it sees itself within the American League wild-card race.

Jack Mayfield, who had gone 167 consecutive innings at third base without an error, bobbled a ground ball on the second play of the game. When Trevor Story, the very next batter, hit another grounder to third, Mayfield bobbled that one too. From there, all it took to score the game’s opening runs were two infield ground balls.

The Rockies added another run in the third with a Brendan Rodgers home run. Then a Jose Iglesias throwing error — also on a Story ground ball — set the Rockies up for more. A Ryan McMahon single scored Story. An Elias Diaz single scored McMahon. Suddenly it was 5-0, despite starting pitcher Jose Suarez having looked good to that point.

“I did find it a little difficult [to recover from the first inning],” Suarez said via an interpreter. “I was trying to get out of that inning with the fewest pitches as possible. But it’s something I can’t control so it’s part of the game.”

The Angels had a chance to cut into the lead in the bottom of the third, putting two on with nobody out and the heart of the order coming up. Shohei Ohtani, Phil Gosselin and Justin Upton proceeded to strike out. It was that kind of night. Colorado added four more runs in the fourth inning. And, though there were no errors charged to the Angels in that inning, the rally started after a bad throw from Kurt Suzuki allowed Garrett Hampson to steal second base. From there, all it took to score Hampson was a Raimel Tapia single.

Angels manager Joe Maddon lifted Suarez two batters later, after a Trevor Story ground-rule double put runners on first and third, but that didn’t quell the rally. Andrew Wantz gave up a three-run home run to Sam Hilliard to make it 9-0. Suarez’s final line: eight runs, four of them earned.

“It was a leaky dam all night and we just couldn't plug her up,” Maddon said.

On the other side, Austin Gomber pitched a solid six innings for Colorado, striking out seven and giving up two runs.

One positive for the Angels was Ohtani’s 36th home run — a 463-foot bomb to right-center field in the fifth — but that came when they were trailing 10-0. Upon the end of that half-inning, fans streamed toward the exits.

By the time they had pulled out of the Angels Stadium parking lot, the Rockies had added two more runs.

After that, the only thing they missed was outfielder Adam Eaton pitching the ninth for the Angels and flashing a fastball that reached up to 90 mph.

“Those two-run losses or 3-2s, and you gotta dissect those, those are much more difficult,” Maddon said. “So we gotta throw this one away, come back tomorrow and play again.”

Still, with the trade deadline looming, a loss like this was exactly the opposite of what the Angels needed. They would like to consider themselves contenders, geared to ride Ohtani and Mike Trout to a playoff berth once the latter returns from an extended injury absence.

But they may not get that chance. Earlier this week, Maddon said the Angels were, “running out of hall passes.”

And they just used up another one.