Angels blow another 9th-inning lead, ensure 11th consecutive losing season

Jeff Fletcher, The Orange County Register on Aug 26, 2026

Published in Baseball

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ANAHEIM, Calif. — The loss that ensured the Angels’ 11th straight losing season was the perfect encapsulation of their latest miserable year.

The starting pitching was good enough, but the offense and the bullpen couldn’t do enough to complete the victory.

Despite taking an early three-run lead and getting quality work from starter Grayson Rodriguez, the Angels had just one hit after the first inning and the bullpen gave up three runs in the eighth and ninth innings of a 4-3 loss to the Cleveland Guardians on Wednesday afternoon.

It was the 10th time this season the Angels (52-82) lost a game when leading after eight innings.

“It’s definitely tough, obviously,” first-year manager Kurt Suzuki said. “But it is what it is. The game moves on and you’ve got to turn the page, go to the next day and, prepare to win the next one.”

They could have won this one, especially after scoring three runs in the first two innings. The Angels, whose offense was shaky even before trades and injuries left it as a skeleton crew, entrusted their pitchers to hold down the Guardians for the rest of the day.

Right-hander Ryan Watson, who got the call in the ninth because Ben Joyce was unavailable after pitching on Tuesday night, allowed the final two runs.

With one out, Watson gave up three straight hits to Chase DeLauter, Brayan Rocchio and Steven Kwan, tying the score. Travis Bazzana hit a sacrifice fly to give the Guardians the lead.

“Good hitters and they put the bat on the ball,” Watson said. “You’ve really got to execute pitches. It’s just something that I didn’t do a good job of today. I feel like everything they hit was over the plate and that’s just where you get hurt in this league. This one’s on me.”

Watson, who was claimed on waivers earlier this month, had allowed just one earned run in his first 6 1/3 innings with the Angels, which allowed him to climb the bullpen depth chart.

Luke Murphy, who was in Double-A last month, gave up an RBI single in the eighth inning, trimming the Angels lead to 3-2.

The Angels didn’t have many bullpen choices because of their workload from the previous three games, and they didn’t have any margin for error because the lineup stopped scoring after the second. They took a 5-0 lead on Tuesday, but scored just one run the rest of that game, which they lost in 10 innings.

On Wednesday, the Angels had only two hits in six innings against left-hander Joey Cantillo, and both came in the first inning. The second hit was Vaughn Grissom’s dribbler in front of the plate, and the Angels parlayed that into a run when Cantillo fielded it and chucked it down the right field line.

After that, Cantillo handed the Angels two runs with his wildness. In the second inning he walked three and hit a batter, leading to the Angels taking a 3-0 lead.

They didn’t get another runner in scoring position until the ninth. They put their leadoff man on in the third and fifth, but both times they hit into double plays. Josh Lowe reached on an infield single to begin the ninth and stole second base with one out, but Travis d’Arnaud struck out and Oswald Peraza popped up to end the game.

“I think maybe some guys maybe try to do too much,” Suzuki said. “I’ve been there before. You feel good and you try to do too much and then you kind of swing yourself out of it. I thought we hit the ball good. They made some good plays. We hit some line drives at them and they got caught. It was a tough one today.”

It spoiled a solid start from Rodriguez, who now has a 2.93 ERA in five August starts, with 29 strikeouts in 27 2/3 innings.

Rodriguez pounded the strike zone, issuing his only walk in the sixth inning. He struck out four.

The Guardians (68-66) hit some balls hard and collected seven hits, but he spaced them out enough to stay out of trouble. In the third inning, he got a break when José Ramirez hit a 105.6 mph line drive that hit Bazzana, who was running between first and second. Bazzana was called out, ending the inning.

“It feels like I’m starting to get back to my normal self,” Rodriguez said. “Just being in the zone with the heater, being able to throw it pretty much in any count. Offspeed’s getting a little bit better. There’s some things we need to work on still, but starting to feel a little bit like my old self, which is good.”