ANAHEIM — The ninth inning of the Angels’ 6-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners on Monday night will go down as one of the ugliest in a season full of ugliness.
A collection of Angels errors and misplays led to the Mariners parlaying one walk – one in which the umpire lost track of the count – and two hits into four runs, snapping a tie.
“It was awful,” Manager Phil Nevin said. “We just made some bad decisions, throws. We didn’t execute a rundown. It wasn’t good.”
The score was tied, 2-2, after eight innings. The Angels had gotten a solid six-inning start from Shohei Ohtani, who debuted his new two-seam fastball, and then solid relief from Andrew Wantz. Luis Rengifo had homered for one of the Angels’ runs.
Aaron Loup, who got the final out of the eighth, was on the mound to start the ninth. He picked up the first out, and then he gave up a single to Sam Haggerty. Loup then threw a pitch in the dirt to pinch-hitter Carlos Santana that catcher Max Stassi blocked. Haggerty wasn’t trying to take the extra base, but Stassi came up throwing and he chucked the ball into center field, allowing Haggerty to advance to second.
“It’s just something that I’ve never done before in my career,” Stassi said. “I’ll never do it again. I anticipated him going. I was trying to be quick and he didn’t even go.”
Haggerty then stole third on the very next pitch.
Amid all of that chaos, umpire Laz Diaz lost track of the count, which he admitted after the game. Diaz called a strike and then a ball on the first two pitches after the stolen base, so the count should have been 2-and-2. Santana asked Diaz if it was 3-and-1.
“I said, ‘No it’s 2-2,’” Diaz said. “Then I started thinking, maybe it is 3-1, because I forgot I called that first pitch a strike. There were so many pitches going on, I lost the count on that first pitch. I knew I called a strike on the steal, and that’s the only one I remembered. I couldn’t remember the one before that. … I messed that one up.”
Diaz’s recollection even after the game was faulty, because the steal was on the first strike to Santana.
Nevin said the Angels asked Diaz what the count was, and Diaz had insisted it was 3-and-1. The scoreboard showed 2-and-2. Diaz said later that had the Angels pushed for a challenge, the umpire crew would have corrected the count, either through a meeting with the other umps or a check of the video.
The next pitch was a ball and Santana jogged to first.
That call aside, the Angels still had plenty of chances to get out of the inning.
Julio Rodriguez hit a line drive right to second baseman Luis Rengifo. The ball popped out of his glove, but he threw home in time to get Haggerty. The Angels got Haggerty in a rundown, but after Stassi threw the ball to third baseman Jose Rojas, no one had gone to cover home in time to take a throw, and Haggerty scored the tie-breaking run. Loup was supposed to cover the plate, but he stumbled in front of the mound.
Ty France then hit a routine bouncer to shortstop Andrew Velazquez, who could have gone to second to start an inning-ending double play. Instead, he threw home. It was in time to get pinch-runner Dylan Moore, but the ball popped out of Stassi’s glove as he was applying the tag.
Jesse Winker then hit a grounder to Rojas, who couldn’t throw home because he slipped. He got the out at first but another run scored. The Mariners added their fourth run on a single by J.P. Crawford.
After it was all over, Stassi took the blame for the whole mess.
“It’s horrible,” Stassi said. “The loss is on me.”
The game ended on a weird play too. Jo Adell was pinch-hitting. He swung at a 1-and-2 pitch from Paul Sewald and the ball shot off into foul territory. Umpires ruled that it was not a foul ball because it had hit Adell’s thumb, and not the bat, so it was a game-ending third strike. Adell could have run to first because the third strike wasn’t caught, but he was being attended to by trainer Mike Frostad, obviously thinking it was a hit-by-pitch or at least a foul ball.
Adell ended up going for X-rays, which were negative, although Nevin said he’s not sure he’ll be able to play on Tuesday. The same was true for David Fletcher, who left the game after he fouled a ball off his left foot. X-rays of Fletcher’s foot were also negative.
Before all the craziness of the ninth, it was a solid performance on the mound by Ohtani, who struck out eight and walked one. He also threw six two-seam fastballs, a pitch he had not used before.
“I started messing around with it playing catch in the bullpen sessions, so I felt like it was time to break it out,” Ohtani said through his interpreter.
Ohtani gave up a homer to Jesse Winker in the first and another run on a Crawford single in the third, but nothing else. Despite allowing at least one runner in five of his six innings, he kept the Angels in the game.
“He threw the ball really well tonight,” Stassi said.
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