The Los Angeles Angels dropped the rubber game of their three-game set against the San Diego Padres, 2-1, as they wasted a fine start by Walbert Urena.
This one started with an unexpected change by the Angels, who made Reid Detmers a late scratch as they called up Walbert Urena from Triple-A Salt Lake to make a surprise start. The Angels didn’t completely reveal why they made the move before the game, but Detmers threw seven shutouts against the Yankees last week, so it may have been just to give him an extra day of rest.
Whatever the reason, the move worked. Urena gave the Angels six strong innings, although Suzuki did make the mistake of running him back out for the seventh even though the young pitcher was clearly gassed.
The Padres did score first as Xander Bogaerts drove home Fernando Tatis Jr. with an RBI single in the fourth inning. Their second run scored on an RBI single by Bryce Johnson, but reliever Sam Bachman managed to rescue Urena from further damage to keep the count at 2-0.
Michael King spun the shutout for Padres for the first five innings as he allowed one hit. King did walk four, but the Angels were unable to capitalize. Rod Marinaccio followed with a scoreless inning despite walking two, but the Angels finally broke through against Kyle Hart, with Zach Neto driving in the run on a groundout to short to make it 2-1.
The Angels couldn’t add more against Padres reliever Bradgley Rodriguez, despite the fact that they were able to get the tying run to third. Nolan Schanuel flied to short center after the Padres walked Mike Trout to get to Schanuel, and Rodriguez struck out two of the three Angels hitters he faced in the eighth.
That meant the Angels had to face Mason Miller in the ninth again, and the outcome of that encounter is a foregone conclusion these days. Miller followed Rodriguez’s lead by striking out two of the three hitters he faced, and that was it for the Halos.
The Angels drew plenty of walks in this one, and they ended up with a total of seven. But they got just two hits, one a single by Jorge Soler as he returned to the lineup, and a double by Oswald Peraza in the seventh when he was left stranded at third.
The Angels have been auditioning fifth starters all season long, and it will be interesting to see what they do with Urena. He deserves another shot based on what he did today, but at the moment the Halos plans are up in the air with the Toronto Blue Jays coming to town tomorrow night, with Detmers listed as the prospective starter.