Missed scoring opportunities define Phillies’ 6-5 loss at Los Angeles Angels

ANAHEIM, Calif. — When Seranthony Domínguez came set to throw a two-strike pitch with two out in the seventh inning Monday night, catcher Garrett Stubbs held his mitt low and away. Then, as Domínguez released the ball, Stubbs repositioned it up and in.

Guess where the pitch went.

Domínguez uncorked a low-and-away fastball that skipped by Stubbs. One run scored, and another came in after Stubbs retrieved the ball and flipped it to home plate and over Domínguez’s head.

And that was how the Phillies lost, 6-5, to the Angels in the series opener in Anaheim.

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“My bad,” Domínguez said after the Phillies busted a four-game winning steak with only their third loss in 14 games. “I just tried to go high-away and just pulled the ball a little bit. It was my bad.”

Well, not entirely.

Stubbs explained that his mitt placement was designed to prevent Mike Trout, who was on second base, from reading the pitch location and relaying it to Taylor Ward at the plate. Domínguez was aware through communication on his PitchCom device that Stubbs wanted the pitch up.

The wild pitch enabled Ehire Adrianza to score from third base with the go-ahead run. But if an infielder — Bryce Harper or Bryson Stott — had backed up the play, Trout wouldn’t have dashed home, too, with the eventual winning run.

“We should have one infielder float into the middle there in case that happens,” manager Rob Thomson said. “I thought he was getting out of that. It’s too bad. An infield single started the whole thing.”

There was a ninth-inning rally because, well, that’s what the Phillies do. They cut the deficit to one run on Trea Turner’s single, a ground-rule double by Harper, and a sacrifice fly by newly minted National League player of the week Alec Bohm.

Brandon Marsh even had a chance to tie the game against his former team in his first game in Anaheim since a deadline trade to the Phillies in 2022. But he swung through a 96 mph fastball from Angels closer Carlos Estevez to end the game two innings after grounding out to leave the bases loaded.

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It was a rough return for Marsh to Angel Stadium, where the Phillies are 1-8 and haven’t won since June 9, 2003. They blew 3-0 and 4-2 leads. Even worse, they drew nine walks and let the Angels live to tell about it.

“I don’t think there’s one guy that comes to the plate that we don’t expect or have the feeling that this could be it, whether it’s a homer, a double, a single, a walk,” Stubbs said. “Everybody that comes up to the plate, we’re very confident in their ability.”

Cristopher Sánchez stayed away from throwing his signature changeup for most of the game. He threw only 15, none in the first inning. Stubbs said the game plan was “not necessarily not to throw changeups,” but rather to lean more on the slider and sinker.

But Sánchez indicated he lacked a feel for the changeup early.

“I didn’t feel great with it,” Sánchez said through a team interpreter. “I didn’t feel like I usually do.”

Perhaps it explains why Sánchez barely missed any bats. He threw 75 pitches and didn’t get his first (and only) swing and miss until his 62nd pitch, a changeup to strike out Trout in the fifth inning.

“If you go back and look at it, it still didn’t have that movement that you really expect out of Sanchy’s changeup,” Stubbs said. “Some days you have your best stuff, some days you don’t. We did our best to try to grind through those five innings.”

The Phillies ambushed Angels starter Griffin Canning for three runs in the first inning. Bohm delivered the big hit yet again, stroking a bases-loaded two-run single to left field before Marsh lifted a sacrifice fly to left.

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But rather than burying Canning, the Phillies wasted opportunities.

Johan Rojas got picked off first base in the second inning. After Canning balked in a run in the fifth, the Phillies couldn’t drive in Turner from second base with one out. Stott got stranded on second in the sixth.

Meantime, the Angels chipped away. Jo Adell hit the first homer allowed by Sánchez this season in the first inning. Luis Rengifo led off the second with a double, stole third base, and scored on Adrianza’s one-out single.

The Angels knocked out Sánchez with back-to-back singles to open the sixth inning, then tied the game against reliever Orion Kerkering on an RBI groundout by Logan O’Hoppe and Cole Tucker’s two-out single.

Domínguez was one pitch from getting out of the seventh inning with the game tied, even after allowing an infield hit to Adrianza and a single to Zach Neto.

Instead, he walked off the mound with a two-run deficit and a 9.58 ERA.

“One pitch away to get out. Unfortunately I just threw a wide pitch,” Domínguez said. “It’s hard. But I still believe in myself, and every time they give me the opportunity to compete, I’m ready.”