ANAHEIM — Kenley Jansen waited seven days to get a chance to pitch. When he finally got to the mound again, it took only three pitches for him to give up his first run of the season.
Three pitches later, he gave up his second.
Jansen entered in a tie game and gave up six runs on three homers in the Angels’ 9-1 loss to the Detroit Tigers on Friday night.
Jansen hadn’t been pitching because the Angels (12-19) hadn’t been able to get a lead in what is now a seven-game losing streak.
Jansen, who hadn’t allowed a run in his first eight innings this season, gave up back-to-back homers to Riley Greene and Colt Keith. He then gave up a two-run homer to Javy Baez. Jansen gave up two more hits and then left-hander Jake Eder allowed a three-run homer to Greene.
It marked the third straight day in which the Angels’ bullpen let a close game get away by allowing at least six runs.
Despite the bullpen meltdown, the overarching problem with the Angels continues to be their offense. The Angels have scored just 2.4 runs per game in the last 19 games, a stretch in which they’ve gone 4-15. They have scored more than four runs only once.
No one expected them to do much in this game, since they were facing reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal.
The only run they scored against Skubal was Zach Neto’s homer to lead off the first inning. Neto pounded the first pitch 429 feet. He then stood at the plate for an extra beat to admire the blast.
The next time Neto came to the plate, the Angels had a runner at third and one out, so it was another key moment in the game. This time, Skubal struck him out with a 99.4 mph fastball above the zone.
As Neto walked back to the dugout, he and Skubal exchanged some words. That prompted players from both dugouts and bullpens to spill onto the field. Order was restored quickly.
After the energy from that moment dissipated, the rest of the night was about Angels pitchers trying to be perfect, because the hitters gave them no more help.
Starter José Soriano pitched six scoreless innings, his best outing since he pitched seven scoreless against the Chicago White Sox in the first weekend of the season. Considering that game was against the last-place White Sox and this one was against the first-place Tigers, a case can be made that this outing was better.
Soriano worked around six hits and a walk. As usual, he was helped by double plays, in the first and fifth innings. He also escaped a jam in the fourth when Neto, the shortstop, made a nice grab of a line drive headed up the middle.
Soriano needed an outing like this after getting hit harder than usual in his previous three games. He has dropped his ERA down to 3.83 after seven starts.
Soriano didn’t get the victory, though.
Skubal allowed no runs after Neto’s homer, so the Angels were clinging to a 1-0 lead when right-hander Ryan Johnson entered in the seventh. He retired the first two hitters, but then gave up a homer to Trey Sweeney. The ball barely cleared the short fence down the right field line.
Right-hander Ryan Zeferjahn added a perfect eighth, keeping the score tied for Jansen.
More to come on this story.
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