Yusei Kikuchi struggles as Angels fall to Rangers

ARLINGTON, Texas — Yusei Kikuchi had his worst game of the season. The Angels’ hitters did nothing until it was too late.

So much for the momentum of a tidy victory.

After winning the first game of the series, the Angels lost, 7-3, to the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night in one of their uglier performances of the season.

The game began with a double from Zach Neto, and it was downhill from there. The Angels couldn’t get Neto home, and then Kikuchi took the mound for a 38-pitch first inning, allowing three runs.

Kikuchi gave up a season-high six runs. Meanwhile, the Angels managed only three hits – two out of the infield – in eight innings against previously struggling left-hander Patrick Corbin. He had a 9.33 ERA in his previous five starts.

Mike Trout, who got the day off on Monday, ran his hitless streak to 13 at-bats, including nine strikeouts, before getting a single in the ninth. Trout hit his 398th homer on Aug. 6, and he’s been stuck on that number since. The 16-game drought is the fourth-longest of his career. It’s the longest since the three-time American League MVP went a career-worst 27 games without a homer in 2015.

Trout said on Sunday that the quest for 400 homers was not on his mind, but his mechanics were off. Interim manager Ray Montgomery said before Tuesday’s game that he thought it was possible it was on Trout’s mind.

“I don’t know how you couldn’t (be thinking about it),” Montgomery said. “It’s the elephant in the room, right? Those are milestones that very few ever even attain, let alone have a chance to.”

The Angels didn’t score until they were down by seven runs in the ninth, when Neto hit a homer and then Jo Adell hit his 30th homer of the season, a two-run shot.

The hitters were playing from behind almost all night because Kikuchi couldn’t continue what he did last week. After a string of starts in which he struggled to get efficient outs, Kikuchi made some adjustments and pitched seven dominant innings on 88 pitches last week.

It was a different story this time.

In the first inning, the main problem was that Kikuchi walked two of the game’s first three hitters.

Adolis Garcia then punched an inside fastball the other way, for a double. With the infield drawn in, Josh Jung was able to get a routine ground ball through for a hit. Another run scored on a sacrifice fly. It took Kikuchi 38 pitches to get out of the inning.

In the second, another walk came around to score, this time in front of a two-run homer from No. 9 hitter Michael Helman.

Kikuchi said he was experimenting with a new grip.

“This week I tried just talking to the pitching coach and tried to a new concept,” Kikuchi said through his interpreter. “I think that kind of backfired a little bit on me.”

Even though Kikuchi was coming off a very good start, he said he was still willing to make the change.

“The last start was good, obviously, but there were some things that I could still improve as well,” Kikuchi said. “Honestly, it wasn’t a drastic change, believe me. It was just changing grip by a couple centimeters. It’s not that big of a deal.”

Kikuchi said he nonetheless abandoned the change for his final two innings. He gave up one more run, when he hung a curveball that Kyle Higashioka hit out in the fourth inning.

After Kikuchi was done, right-handers Chase Silseth and Sam Bachman – each freshly up from the minors – had an opportunity to pitch. Silseth worked a scoreless fifth. Bachman gave up one run, on a Corey Seager homer, in two innings.

The ninth inning included the night’s only positives, with Neto and Adell hitting homers. Adell joined Taylor Ward as the only teammates in MLB to each have 30 homers this season.

“It was kind of crazy,” Adell said. “The way that I was feeling the box today, I didn’t really expect it to come today. Just refocus on the last AB. And was just focused on really not giving any at-bats away. That at-bat got a mistake to do some damage. So I’m feeling pretty good about it.”