Inexperience gets the better of Fulmer and the Angels

ANAHEIM -- Since mid-July, the Angels have had a strange trend depending on the quality of their opponent.

Every time they play a team in the race, they step up to the challenge. But when they play a fellow team out of contention, they struggle. That pattern kept up with their 6-1 loss to the scuffling Blue Jays on Tuesday, handing them a series loss at Angel Stadium. Right-hander Carson Fulmer had a rough outing, allowing five runs over three innings, including three in the opening frame.

Angels manager Ron Washington said before the game that he believes it’s because his team is inexperienced. But they're working to correct that. It’s just another thing his young club has to learn how to do going forward.

“It’s what immature kids do, and I don't mean that in a vicious manner, but that's what immature kids do,” Washington said. “Until it becomes a part of them, you're gonna have to fight that every day. So we're gonna show up every day, we're gonna prepare every day, and we're gonna go out there and try to win a ballgame, and hopefully, they get to the point where they play good enough baseball to beat anybody on any day, not just when you play good teams. That's the maturity part.”

The strange streak began when they took three out of four against the Mariners in Seattle, ending the first half. They then lost a three-game set to the rebuilding A’s before sweeping the Mariners at Angel Stadium. But they followed that up by losing three of four at home to Oakland before dropping two out of three to the last-place Rockies.

The Angels then won consecutive series over the Mets and Yankees, including their first at Yankee Stadium since 2017. But after they lost two out of three to the Nationals in Washington before dropping their three-game set to Toronto.

Add it up, and the Angels are 10-3 against clubs with a winning record since mid-July but are 4-11 against clubs below .500. It has confounded catcher Logan O’Hoppe, who has had a tough stretch recently, as he went 0-for-4 to extend his slump to 0-for-28.

“I can't really put my finger on it, to be honest with you,” O’Hoppe said. “I think that we know we have to put our best out there against the teams that are in the hunt, and then we’ve got to replicate that with the teams that aren't. It’s something we're all working on as a group, and I think it's just an opportunity to grow.”

The Angels found themselves in an early hole, as Fulmer gave up three runs with two outs in the first inning. He walked George Springer on five pitches to open the game but got both Daulton Varsho and the red-hot Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to ground out. Fulmer then walked Spencer Horwitz on seven pitches, which prompted a mound visit from pitching coach Barry Enright. He got ahead of Ernie Clement with two quick strikes but gave up a hard-luck RBI single on a grounder that hit the third-base bag.

The Blue Jays capitalized on the unlucky play, with Will Wagner ripping a two-run double on a 1-2 changeup at the bottom of the zone. After that, Fulmer settled down a bit, retiring five straight. But, he served up a solo homer to Guerrero on a 2-2 sweeper, followed by a solo blast from Horwitz on a 1-2 fastball that caught too much of the zone.

It was tied for Fulmer's shortest start of the year since joining the rotation in early July, matching his total from his first start when he wasn't fully stretched out. He fell to 0-3 with a 4.22 ERA in 70 1/3 innings this season.

“Frustrating part for me is, I personally am pretty hard on myself,” he said. “I think it's unacceptable for something like that to happen. We have a tight-knit group. We show up every day ready to play. I’m not going to say the [Blue Jays] are not as good as somebody else. It’s the big leagues. Everybody is here for a reason. We have to show up and be ready to play. But it starts with me. I need to do a better job of getting deeper into games.”