ANAHEIM — In a matter of minutes, José Suarez went from pitching a perfect game to sitting in the dugout, staring at a deficit.
The Angels’ left-hander mostly continued his encouraging work in the second half, but a sixth-inning hiccup led to all the damage it took to send the Angels to an 8-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night.
Suarez ended up being charged with three runs in 5-1/3 innings after not allowing a baserunner until the sixth inning.
Suarez has become a new pitcher since adding a second changeup to his repertoire at the All-Star break. In addition to his firmer, straighter change, Suarez added one that dropped more, giving him a new put-away pitch.
He had not allowed an earned run in his first three outings featuring the pitch, against the Oakland A’s and Kansas City Royals.
Those teams are a couple of the weakest hitting teams in the majors, though, so a better test awaited him when the Mariners got their first look at the new Suarez.
For five innings, they could do nothing with him. Suarez retired every Seattle hitter, striking out five of them. Four of the strikeouts were on his changeup.
Suarez retired the first hitter of the sixth, but his bid for perfection ended when Adam Frazier hit a bouncer into the hole on the left side. Shortstop David Fletcher got to it, but his spinning throw was not in time to get Frazier.
Sam Haggerty and Julio Rodriguez then pulled clean singles into left field, loading the bases. West Covina South Hills High product Ty France poked a ball between first baseman Jared Walsh and the bag, driving in two runs to tie the score.
That was all for Suarez, who had one more run charged to his line after Jesse Winker greeted Jimmy Herget with a sacrifice fly.
The Angels suddenly trailed 3-2, and they could not make up even that deficit on a night when the bottom of the order couldn’t provide any support to the top.
The top four hitters in the Angels’ lineup combined for seven hits and three walks, including Luis Rengifo’s homer in the first and RBI single in the third, both against reigning Cy Young Award winner Robbie Ray.
The bottom five combined to go hitless in 20 at-bats, without a walk. They also struck out 11 times.
No. 5 hitter Max Stassi hit into a double play with the bases loaded in the third, spoiling the Angels’ chance to add to their 2-0 lead. Stassi is now hitless in his last 19 at-bats.
The Mariners broke open the one-run game with five runs in the top of the ninth against right-hander Jesse Chavez.
More to come on this story.
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