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Angels squander 6-run lead in loss to Astros

March 29, 2026

Angels’ Jorge Soler, right, celebrates his two-run home run against the Houston Astros with Mike Trout during the fourth inning of a baseball game Saturday, March 28, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Eric Christian Smith)

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HOUSTON — For four and a half innings, the magical start to the 2026 Angels season continued, as they could hardly do anything wrong.

And then, in an instant, the 2025 Angels returned.

Everything went wrong over a span of two innings, as a six-run lead turned into a five-run deficit in a game the Angels eventually lost, 11-9, to the Houston Astros on Saturday night.

The good vibes from victories in the first two games of the season were still going when the Angels hit a pair of homers on their way to a 6-0 lead in the fifth.

But the seeds for this loss were actually sown a night earlier. Although the Angels won, 6-2, on Friday night, the Astros worked Angels starter Yusei Kikuchi hard enough to get him out of the game after just 4⅓ innings, which left the Angels with 4⅔ innings to coax from the bullpen.

On Saturday, the Astros did it again, this time to Reid Detmers.

Detmers struck out nine and walked none. Normally, those would be the ingredients for a dominant outing. In this case, though, the Astros cranked up Detmers’ pitch count, though.

“They’re a lot of good hitters,” Detmers said. “I made a lot of really good pitches and they just kind of spoiled them. Not a whole lot I can do there. I was making my pitches. I was hitting the spots I needed to and they just kept fouling them off, so you just kind of tip your cap to them and grind through it.”

Detmers said the only one of his 95 pitches that he wanted back was the last one. It was an 0-and-2 slider to Isaac Paredes with two out and two on in the fifth. Detmers said he wanted to bounce the pitch, but he hung it. Paredes hit it off the top of the left field wall, for a double to cut the deficit to 6-2.

At that point, manager Kurt Suzuki was in an unenviable spot. Even with a four-run lead, he had 13 outs to get with a bullpen that was short-handed because of the workload from the first two games. Four of the Angels’ eight relievers were unavailable. Right-handers Chase Silseth and Jordan Romano had pitched in each of the first two games, and right-hander Ryan Zeferjahn threw two innings on Friday. Right-hander Sam Bachman only worked one inning on Friday, but he threw 27 pitches. Considering his injury history and the fact that it’s still March, it was reasonable to stay away from using him too.

The only two available pitchers who could get through two innings were left-hander Brent Suter and rookie right-hander Walbert Ureña.

Ureña, who had made his big league debut on Thursday, entered the game and quickly gave up a run on a Carlos Correa single, making it 6-3.

He returned to the mound in the sixth. After recording the first out easily, Ureña had the second one in his hand when he picked up a dribbler in front of the mound. His throw to first base was wild, though, for an error.

After a single, Ureña struck out José Altuve for what should have been the third out of the inning.

Instead, Ureña threw a wild pitch, issued a walk and gave up two consecutive singles. One of them was another dribbler just in front of the plate. Catcher Logan O’Hoppe picked it up and then threw it away in a futile attempt to get the out at first.

“At that moment, we felt like Ureña gave us the best chance,” Suzuki said. “One of those nights with a couple swinging bunts and stuff like that. But credit to them. They put some tough at-bats, made (Ureña) work too, and made him throw the ball over the plate. Just one of those nights.”

After Ureña was pulled, left-hander Joey Lucchesi entered and issued a walk, followed by two more hits.

When the inning finally ended, the Astros had eight unearned runs to take an 11-6 lead.

The nightmarish sequence spoiled a night that began with the Angels showing more promising signs at the plate.

Oswald Peraza, Jorge Soler and Nolan Schanuel hit homers for the Angels, whose eight homers in the first three games of the season are a franchise record.

Schanuel’s three-run homer in the ninth cut the deficit from five runs to two.

Mike Trout had an RBI single and two walks, continuing his hot start. Trout is now 5 for 9 with six walks. He also made a lunging catch in center field.

“We’ve been putting some good at-bats together,” Suzuki said. “Guys are stringing some hits together, putting some barrels on the ball and scoring some runs. It’s been some great at-bats, consistent. The work’s been great. Nice to see them get rewarded for those at-bats.”

Angels squander 6-run lead in loss to Astros Orange County Register

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Angels squander 6-run lead in loss to Astros

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