Twins lose 4-2 to Angels as road trip's problems conspire for one more defeat

ANAHEIM, CALIF. – The beaches were gorgeous, the food was tasty and the weather is always beautiful. Yet the Twins found a way — several ways, actually — to spoil a week in southern California.

Pablo López battled Shohei Ohtani almost pitch-for-pitch on Sunday, for instance, but when he departed with the score tied in the seventh, it took only eight pitches for the Angels to take the lead, and ultimately the victory, 4-2 at Angel Stadium.

The Twins come home with matching 1-2 records against both the Dodgers and Angels, and the series were remarkably similar. Minnesota held a lead in the seventh inning or later of every game but Sunday's, yet because of bullpen blowups won only the middle game of both series.

"Overall, we can't be pleased with the trip that we just had," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "We're a little [upset] about the way we've been handling our business, all of us. We played close games, but we haven't really played well enough to think we were going to win. It's come down to basically a pitch or two that has decided the game."

On Sunday, those pitches were thrown by Jorge López, who relieved Pablo López in the seventh inning with the score tied 1-1 after the starter walked pinch-hitter Matt Thaiss to open the inning. Zach Neto greeted the bullpen López with a double off the right-field wall, and Mickey Moniak followed with a double off the center-field wall, scoring both runners ahead of him.

"I'm still angry about it. It's my job to fix that," López said. "It was a really good game that Pablo was going through, and I couldn't do the job. … It's awful."

The first López was steady throughout the game, and even though he allowed hitters to reach base in the first inning for the ninth consecutive start — Mike Trout and Ohtani, "probably the two most talented players in the league," the pitcher consoled himself — he worked out of trouble by striking out Hunter Renfroe and Jared Walsh.

He didn't allow another hit until giving up back-to-back singles in the fourth, with former Twin Gio Urshela providing a sacrifice fly to tie the score. But that walk to Thaiss, the last batter he faced, was the one that haunted him, López said.

"Leadoff walks for the most part come back to get you. That late in the game, I know I could have been more aggressive in the zone," López said. "I failed to execute better pitches," and it led to a pair of runs.

The Twins closed the gap to one run when Alex Kirilloff hit a pitch into the front row in the left-field corner, a ball that Moniak dove into the stands to catch — successfully, for a moment. But the ball squirted free out of the top of his glove as Moniak pulled it back, giving Kirilloff his third home run of the season.

"I thought he caught it. I know how good of an outfielder he is. I saw him go three-quarters of the way into the stands, I figured he had it," Kirilloff said. "I wasn't sure, so I just kept running the bases."

The Angels responded with an insurance run in the eighth, when José De León gave up a single to Urshela and a double down the left-field line to Thaiss, who reached third base when Joey Gallo couldn't pick it up cleanly.

The first six innings had nowhere near that much action, thanks the pitching of Pablo López and Ohtani. The 2021 AL MVP battled control problems much of the day, walking three over six innings, but also overpowered the Twins with his fastball-sweeper mix. Ohtani struck out nine in six innings, including the final four batters he faced, and only made one mistake, walking Gallo in the third inning then giving up a two-out double to Carlos Correa.

Once he departed after six innings, though, the Twins were presented with their best opportunity — well, it would be for any other team — to score. Two hits and a walk loaded the bases with one out, exactly the situation that has spelled doom for them all year. Sure enough, Ryan Jeffers looked at strike three from Reyes Moronta, and Gallo swung at strike three from Chris Devenski.

"Eventually, we're going to get a hit and eventually we're going to hit a ball hard and hopefully we're not talking about this anymore," Baldelli said of his team, which had 10 plate appearances with bases loaded on this trip, and after a Christian Vázquez walk on Monday, went 0-for-9 with zero RBI in those situations. "It is unfortunate, and it does lead to losing games, so we need to do a better job of that."

The Twins, who have not won a series against the Angels since 2019, now are 5-for-43 all of them singles, for an MLB-worst .116 average with bases loaded. They open a six-game homestand at 6:40 p.m. tonight against the Giants.

"It's tough. It's tough," Correa said. "I do feel like we've played really good baseball, and obviously we didn't win."