ANAHEIM — The Angels’ recent run of quality starting pitching came to an end on Wednesday night.
Jaime Barria, the Angels’ No. 6 starter, gave up five runs on three homers in three innings, sending the Angels on their way to an 11-5 loss to the Chicago White Sox.
Angels starters had allowed three runs or fewer in their previous 13 games. They had a 1.94 ERA in that span.
The Angels moved Barria into the No. 6 spot in the rotation last month because of how well he had pitched in relief, and because he’d shown an ability to bounce between the rotation and the bullpen.
His previous start was on June 13, in Texas. The Angels then didn’t need him for a couple of weeks, so he pitched out of the bullpen on June 18, working three scoreless innings.
With 10 days between outings, he was not sharp on Wednesday night.
“It’s tough when you don’t pitch that much,” Manager Phil Nevin said. “You can get all the work in in the bullpen you want, but you’re not facing hitters. The adrenaline is not flowing. It’s a tough role to have. He’s been great at it.”
Barria said he had worked enough in the bullpen between starts so that wasn’t an excuse.
“I don’t think that affected me at all,” Barria said through an interpreter. “I threw enough bullpens. I just missed my pitches.”
Barria walked the first hitter of the game, and two batters later he hung a slider to Luis Robert Jr., who crushed it 444 feet for a two-run homer.
The Angels got those two runs back in the bottom of the inning, on back-to-back triples by Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout and a Brandon Drury RBI single.
But Barria gave up solo homers to Seby Zavala and Eloy Jimenez in the next two innings. He allowed a fifth run on an Andrew Vaughn double and a two-out single from Zach Remillard.
That was all for Barria, who threw just 59 pitches.
“I left all my sliders up,” Barria said. “They made adjustments. They hit my fastballs. That’s what happened tonight.”
The good news is that Barria shouldn’t have to wait so long for his next outing. The Angels play seven more games before their next off day, so Barria is expected to start again sometime during that stretch.
Even after he was done, they still might have been able to climb back into the game if the Angels’ bullpen could have held down the White Sox, but Andrew Wantz allowed the game to get out of hand.
Wantz gave up four more runs in the fourth and fifth, three on Vaughn’s bases-loaded double. At that point, the Angels trailed 9-2, the first time they were down by more than four runs at any point in a game since June 3. They had not lost a game by more than four runs since May 7.
Drury and Hunter Renfroe hit homers in the seventh. It was Renfroe’s first home run since June 13, and his third in a span of 38 games.
Drury drove in another run in the eighth, giving him three RBIs for the seventh time this season. The Angels briefly pulled within 9-5 before Tucker Davidson gave up two more runs in the top of the ninth.
Trout was pulled after he batted in the sixth inning, with the Angels trailing by seven runs. Nevin said it was just a way to keep him healthy, avoiding the chance of an injury in a blowout.
“I’m going to be extra cautious with him,” Nevin said. “He’s played a lot of games. I know I gave him yesterday off but he’s fine. He’s completely fine.”
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