ANAHEIM — The recipe for a sweep was pretty simple.
“Their starters beat up our hitters, and their hitters beat up our starters,” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “That’s the way it was.”
The Angels lost to the Toronto Blue Jays, 9-2, on Wednesday night, getting swept in the three-game series. The Angels did not have a hit with a runner in scoring position in any of the games, scoring their only runs on four solo homers and a sacrifice fly.
“Just couldn’t put anything together,” Washington said. “And the last two starters (Kevin Gausman on Tuesday and José Berrios on Wednesday), they’ve got innings under their belt. You give them a lead, and they’re going against a young offense, they’re going to take it to the house.”
The Blue Jays jumped in front on Wednesday by knocking around left-hander Tyler Anderson, who has been the Angels’ best pitcher.
Anderson gave up a season-high seven runs in 5⅔ innings, five of them scoring on a Ernie Clement’s two-run homer in the second inning and Daulton Varsho’s three-run homer in the fifth.
“When he left something up over the plate, they weren’t missing it,” Washington said. “They know he’s a change-of-speed master, and you can see they were in the box, not jumping out there. They were waiting to see the ball and swinging. They had a good approach against him tonight. They really did. They had a really good approach against him. When he made a mistake, they didn’t miss it.”
Anderson also struck out eight, which was just two shy of his season high. That made it a bit of a puzzling night for him.
He said some of the swings and misses were on pitches that he’d have preferred to get soft contact for an out. Instead, the hitters remained in the box, giving them more opportunity to do damage.
“I felt a lot better than that worked out,” Anderson said. “It sounds stupid to say, but I feel like I pitched better than the outcome. Essentially, I think if I take how I pitch today most games, I’ll end up being OK. Just seemed like the opposite of timely hitting is like untimely pitching. The hits they had were all at the right times.”
It was all part of a miserable night for the Angels. After winning consecutive series against the New York Mets and New York Yankees, the Angels have lost five of six games to the Washington Nationals and Blue Jays – two teams that are well below .500.
Aside from Anderson getting hit hard, the Angels’ lineup produced little against Berrios.
The Angels began the game short-handed, because Washington chose to give concurrent days off to Zach Neto, Logan O’Hoppe and Jo Adell. Washington wanted them all to get the benefit of consecutive days off, including Thursday’s scheduled off day.
That allowed Matt Thaiss to get a start at catcher, and he produced the Angels’ only run with his second homer of the season. He also had a single.
Thaiss spent most of the first half barely playing because O’Hoppe started so many games behind the plate. However, he performed well enough in limited action that Washington has warmed to giving him more playing time, including as the DH.
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Thaiss has hit .342 with a .909 OPS over 46 plate appearances since July 3.
“I’ve been very impressed, because Matt comes out every day and works,” Washington said this week. “That’s one thing that I notice about him. He works his butt off every single day, and he’s prepared. It’s something he had to learn too. He wasn’t like that at the beginning of the year, but he’s learning now that he can go out there and do all kind of things to keep his body and his mind right, and that’s the way he comes to the ballpark.
“And he’s proving to me that I can put him up against left-handers, So I’m looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to him continuing to do it, but to do what he’s doing. And it’s a growth period for him.”
Other than Thaiss, the only Angel with a hit was Taylor Ward, who doubled.
The Angels were hitless in seven at-bats with runners in scoring position, dropping to 3 for 53 in that situation over the last six games.
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