NEW YORK — The Angels’ eighth consecutive loss was all about their struggling offense until it became about their struggling bullpen.
Just after the Angels had squeaked out a one-run lead in the eighth inning, they gave up two runs in the bottom of the inning to lose, 2-1, to the New York Yankees in the second game of a split doubleheader on Thursday.
The Angels’ streak was extended earlier in the day with an all-around bad game in a 6-1 loss that included Shohei Ohtani giving up four runs.
The Angels (27-25) matched their longest losing streak since August 2019.
In the second game, the Angels spent most of the night barely touching right-hander Jameson Taillon. They didn’t have a baserunner until the eighth, but then Jared Walsh doubled and scored on a two-out single by Kurt Suzuki.
Manager Joe Maddon, who had already used Aaron Loup and Ryan Tepera, turned to rookie Oliver Ortega to try to bridge the three-out gap before closer Raisel Iglesias in the ninth.
Ortega, though, got one out on a fly ball to the warning track, and then he gave up a double and two walks, loading the bases.
Right-hander Archie Bradley struck out Joey Gallo for the second out, but then pinch-hitter Anthony Rizzo punched a two-run single up the middle.
The Angels loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth on two walks and a hit batter against Yankees right-hander Clay Holmes, but Luis Rengifo grounded out to end it.
It ended the long, disappointing day for the Angels, whose last victory was on May 24.
Just about everything has gone wrong since then.
They ran into some excellent Yankees pitching in this series, and Taillon was dominant in the second game on Thursday.
In the first, Shohei Ohtani drilled a drive to deep center, but Aaron Hicks raced back and settled under it at the warning track.
Otherwise, the Angels didn’t even threaten to get a hit until Ohtani came up again in the seventh inning. With the Yankees playing a shift, Ohtani hit one straight up the middle. Shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa quickly went to his backhand to grab it and then he made a one-hop throw to first to barely get Ohtani.
Walsh finally ended Taillon’s bid for a perfect game in the eighth inning, when he hit a bouncer up the middle. Kiner-Falefa made a sliding backhand attempt but the ball nicked off his glove and dribbled into left field. Walsh hustled into second.
He scored on Suzuki’s two-out single, briefly giving the Angels hope they could pull out a victory.
The Angels could hang around, despite a meager offensive attack, because starter Reid Detmers bounced back with an encouraging outing. In the two starts after his no-hitter, he had allowed eight runs in 9-2/3 innings.
This time Detmers didn’t allow any runs, although it was still something of a struggle. He needed 86 pitches to record just 13 outs, because only 52% of his pitches were strikes. The major league average is 63%.
Detmers walked four. He also gave up five hits. He allowed the leadoff man to reach base in four of the five innings he started, and he allowed the first two to reach twice.
Detmers, however, successfully walked the tightrope. He was particularly impressive in the third inning, when he retired Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andújar in order to strand two runners.
