Angels squander 6-run lead in loss to Astros

Jeff Fletcher, The Orange County Register on Mar 28, 2026

Published in Baseball

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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.

Starter Reid Detmers was effective — nine strikeouts and no walks — but the Astros ran up his pitch count. He was done with two outs in the fifth after his 95th pitch.

Isaac Paredes hit a two-run double on Detmers’ final pitch, making it 6-2.

At that point, manager Kurt Suzuki was in an unenviable spot. At least three of the Angels’ eight relievers were likely 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. They may have also wanted to stay away from right-hander Sam Bachman, who pitched one inning on 27 pitches on Friday night.

With 13 outs still to get, Suzuki had only two relievers who could get through two innings, 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.

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.

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