ANAHEIM — This was a fitting performance for what is likely to be the last Angels home game of a miserable era.
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The Angels lost, 8-0, to the Minnesota Twins on Sunday afternoon, completing their home schedule in the final season under owner Arte Moreno.
They’ll have six more road games, and then their 11th straight season will be officially in the books, allowing the fans to fully turn their focus to the hopeful beginning of Stan Kroenke’s ownership. The sale is scheduled to be completed sometime over the winter.
In the meantime, the Angels (60-96) need to find a way to win three more games if they are to avoid the first 100-loss season in franchise history.
They won’t do it playing the way they did on Sunday.
The offense was poor, even by the standard they’ve set in a second half when runs have been sparse. Twins right-hander Dean Kremer, who brought a 5.35 ERA to the mound, held the Angels to one hit in six innings. He struck out eight.
“(Kremer) is a veteran guy, knows what he’s doing on the mound, keeps you off balance,” manager Kurt Suzuki said. “I thought him and (catcher Victor) Caratini did well together back there, kept us off balance. We hit some balls hard, and maybe if we pushed a couple across early, it would have been a whole different story, but I thought he did a good job limiting damage to us.”
In the third inning, No. 9 hitter Christian Moore drew a walk, setting the stage for the top of the order to hit with a runner on base. Zach Neto, Mike Trout and Wade Meckler all struck out.
An inning later, Vaughn Grissom led off with a single. Moisés Ballesteros followed by hitting into a double play.
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The Angels did not get a runner in scoring position all day.
On the mound, starter Ryan Johnson gave up three runs on seven hits in 4⅔ innings, his worst result in a stretch of solid pitching over the last two months. Johnson actually didn’t pitch that poorly, though. He didn’t walk anyone — the fourth straight Angels starter to have a walk-free game — and he struck out six.
Two of the runs scored in the third, when Johnson gave up four hits. That included an infield hit and a bloop single.
“I thought actually RJ pitched better than the line that he had,” Suzuki said. “He had no walks, six strikeouts, soft contact. He basically got singled to death.”
Johnson took no solace in that assessment, though.
“I think that at the end of the day, the thing that matters the most is keeping the runs off the board, and they they fought hard,” Johnson said. “A lot of credit to them. They had some good at-bats that put put the guys across the plate.”
Mop-up reliever Sammy Peralta then let the game get out of hand by giving up five runs in 1⅔ innings. Peralta didn’t get any help from center fielder José Siri, whose poor defense directly led to two runs.
With two outs in the sixth, Siri seemed to lose track of how close he was to the fence when he was chasing a fly ball. He had room to make the catch on his feet, but he jumped and allowed the ball to drop for a double. The next batter singled, scoring a run. Siri was then slow to back up a throw that got past shortstop Zach Neto on a stolen-base attempt, so Ben Ross came all the way around to score on the play.
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