Angels offense sputters in loss to Texas

ARLINGTON, TEXAS >> The Angels offense that was teeming with potential for most of May was a rare sight Tuesday night.

After scoring 102 runs in their first 21 games this month, fifth most in the major leagues, they brought in only one in their 22nd game, a 4-1 loss to the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Park.

That came in the eighth iing when they were already trailing 3-0. Kole Calhoun reached on a hard-hit single to right field, Mike Trout followed with a double into the right-center field gap and Calhoun scored on Albert Pujols’ groundout.

The Angels struggled to produce all night, going 0 for 7 with ruers in scoring position.

“We’ve been playing pretty well lately,” Calhoun said. “We’re not going to hang our hat on just this one.”

That put a premium on pitching and the Angels were not perfect there.

In his third start since being acquired in a trade with Atlanta, Jhoulys Chacin threw a season-high 96 pitches, but only 52 for strikes. He struck out four and walked two in six iings.

Chacin (0-1) made it through the first three iings unscathed, a fact he later called “weird.”

“I had trouble getting ahead of the count,” Chacin said. “Then after the third iing, I started settling down and getting ahead more, but that’s when I gave up the runs.”

In the fourth, Elvus Andrus tued on his first pitch, an 87 mph cutter, and lined it down the third-base line for a one-out, RBI double.

When Chacin got behind in the count later, it cost him. An 84 mph changeup in the sixth stayed up and Nomar Mazara deposited the 2-and-0 offering 422 feet away, into the upper deck in right field, for a two-run home run.

“Maybe I didn’t throw it with a lot of conviction,” Chacin said.

He wanted it to sink. It did not.

The right-hander has given up seven runs in his last two starts, pushing his ERA to 5.11.

But Chacin got little run support from an offense that has scored three runs through the first 18 iings of this three-game series.

Even with five position players on the disabled list, the Angels have been productive at the plate.

“It’s pretty much the same group of guys we had in spring training,” Calhoun said. “We know what the other guys bring to the table. They’re all ballplayers. They’re all going to go out and play hard and they’ve been playing well lately.”

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They had trouble against Rangers left-handed starter Martin Perez (2-4), who threw six scoreless iings Tuesday and has a 2.25 ERA in six career starts against the Angels.

“That’s one of the best I’ve seen him,” Calhoun said.

Perez’s fastball averaged 95 mph and hit 97.

“That’s the firmest we’ve seen him,” Scioscia said. “He was throwing the ball hard.”

They had chances late. The leadoff batter reached base to start the fifth, sixth and seventh iings.

Their best chance might have been in the sixth when Shane Robinson and Yunel Escobar hit a pair of singles to put ruers at the coers with no outs for Kole Calhoun. Calhoun grounded out to Rangers first baseman. Robinson ran on contact toward home and Moreland’s throw got there in time.

Perez then struck out Trout and walked Pujols to load the bases. The 25-year-old Perez gestured emphatically after finishing the 31-pitch iing with a strikeout of Johy Giavotella, who went 0 for 4 and had a 12-game hitting streak end.

“You hope first and third, nobody out, at least you’re coming out of that iing tied in the ballgame,” Scioscia said. “He made some pitches and they made some plays on the defensive side.”

“He got in a jam there and made his pitches,” Calhoun said.

Perez was winless for the month despite a 2.59 ERA in four starts coming in and the left-hander dropped that number to 2.08.