Short-handed Angels drop finale of 4-game series in Houston

Jeff Fletcher, The Orange County Register on Sep 1, 2025

Published in Baseball

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HOUSTON — The Angels were having a good day for about 10 minutes.

Zach Neto and Jo Adell hit a pair of home runs in a span of four batters in the fourth inning, giving the Angels a brief one-run lead.

Everything that happened before and after that was bad, as the Angels lost to the Houston Astros, 8-3, on Monday afternoon.

The Angels (64-73) got out of Houston with a split in the four-game series, which was an accomplishment considering that they scored 10 runs in the series.

The Angels managed only seven hits on Monday, and they did not have an at-bat with a runner in scoring position until there was one out in the ninth and they were down by five. By contrast the Astros put themselves into scoring position by stealing second five times, and they sprayed 12 hits all over the field, including two homers.

Starter Yusei Kikuchi had his second straight poor outing, allowing five runs one start after giving up six.

The way the Angels are hitting, they couldn’t overcome Kikuchi’s performance.

The Angels’ offense has been in a rut for about two weeks, and lately they’ve been losing key offensive performers.

Cleanup hitter Taylor Ward, still recovering from a collision with the outfield wall on Sunday, and third baseman Yoán Moncada, who has a sore shoulder, were both on the bench. First baseman Nolan Schanuel is on the injured list.

The best players remaining were Neto and Adell, and their homers provided the only runs of the day.

Neto led off the fourth with his 25th homer of the season.

Mike Trout, who is showing signs of emerging from his slump, hit a ball off the wall, for a single, later in the inning. The three-time American League MVP extended his homer drought to 21 games, his longest in 10 years.

Adell’s 31st homer of the season drove in Trout and briefly put the Angels ahead, 3-2.

The three runs could have been good enough if the Angels had gotten the kind of starting pitching they did in the first three games of the series, but Kikuchi was not sharp.

Kikuchi said after his last start that he was experimenting with a new grip. Kikuchi said he abandoned the new grip for the final two innings of the previous start.

On Monday, the Astros had a steady stream of base runners against him, with eight hits and two walks. They scored single runs in the second, third, fourth and fifth innings. They added one in the sixth after Kikuchi was pulled.

The bullpen didn’t help after Kikuchi was pulled. Right-hander Chase Silseth allowed one of Kikuchi’s runs to score. Left-hander Brock Burke, who hadn’t allowed a run since July 23, gave up three in the eighth, two on a José Altuve homer.