Angels continue their offensive struggle in 3-2 loss to Astros

Jeff Fletcher, The Orange County Register on Aug 19, 2026

Published in Baseball

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HOUSTON — Add another one to the Angels’ pile of losses because they didn’t hit.

As they’ve done so many times since the All-Star break, the Angels wasted some quality pitching by failing to do anything at the plate, losing to the Houston Astros, 3-2, on Wednesday night.

It was the 14th time in their last 30 games that they failed to get to three runs.

Starter Walbert Ureña gave up three runs in five innings, and the Angels’ bullpen held the Astros the rest of the way.

The hitters, though, couldn’t find a clutch hit. They were 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position.

One of the more disappointing at-bats came with a runner at first, though. Mike Trout came to the plate in the seventh, with the tying run at first. He got ahead 2-and-0, and then swung through an 89-mph fastball over the middle of the plate.

Trout then took two straight pitches that were above the zone. Both were called strikes. He didn’t challenge either.

Trout has only challenged 10 pitches all season, getting six of them overturned. For comparison, Nolan Schanuel leads the team with 36, and Zach Neto is second with 18.

The Angels (50-77) had another chance in the ninth against closer Josh Hader. Pinch-hitter Travis d’Arnaud drew a leadoff walk. The Angels got pinch-runner Adam Frazier to second base with one out, but Oswald Peraza grounded out and José Siri ended the game with a fly out to the warning track.

The Angels’ only runs came on one swing of the bat in the fourth inning.

With runners at first and second, one out and a 3-and-2 pitch, manager Kurt Suzuki got aggressive by sending the runners. Denzer Guzman hit a drive to the left-field fence. It was just short of being a homer, but a fan reached over and caught it. Umpires called fan interference, and after a meeting they determined that both runners would have scored, giving the Angels a brief 2-1 lead.

It didn’t last long, as the Astros (64-63) got the runs back in the bottom of the inning against Ureña.

Ureña got off to a dominating start before running into trouble in the third and fourth innings, eventually allowing three runs in five innings.

In the first two innings, Ureña struck out four of the six batters he faced. He then retired the first two hitters in the third before No. 9 hitter Cristian spun on a 98-mph fastball on his hands and lined it over the left-field fence.

An inning later, Ureña gave up a leadoff single to Yordan Alvarez. He then issued his first walk of the day. José Altuve yanked a double into the left-field corner, tying the score at 2.

The go-ahead run came home on a sacrifice fly.