Angels fall to Tigers as losing streak extends to six

DETROIT â€”  Riley Greene and Kerry Carpenter homered in a three-run sixth inning and the Detroit Tigers extended their winning streak to five games with a 6-2 victory over the Angels on Tuesday night.

The Angels, last place in the American League West at 54-78, have lost six straight and 12 of their last 14 games.

The start of the game was delayed 2 hours, 45 minutes by heavy storms and the first pitch wasn’t thrown until 9:45 p.m. But the Tigers didn’t have any trouble with the late start.

“This was late, but we wanted to get it in so we didn’t have to play two tomorrow,� Greene said. “I have a lot of caffeine in the body right now.�

Brant Hurter (2-1) picked up his second major-league win in his first start, giving up two runs and four hits in five innings. Jason Foley got the final out for his 18th save.

Johnny Cueto (0-2) took the loss in his second start of the season. The 38-year-old right-hander gave up six runs and six hits — including three homers — in five-plus innings.

The Angels took a 1-0 lead in the first. Taylor Ward opened the game with a double, took third on a fly ball and scored on Nolan Schanuel‘s infield single.

Cueto retired the first nine hitters before Parker Meadows hit a deep fly to left-center field that dropped between Ward and Kevin Pillar for a triple. Matt Vierling doubled with one out, tying the score, and took third on Jo Adell’s error.

“The triple didn’t even get to the warning track — that’s just a miscommunication on our part,� Angels manager Ron Washington said. “You have to make those plays, especially when you have the lead.�

Carpenter took advantage of another defensive mistake as his bouncer went past Zach Neto for an RBI single, making it 2-1 Tigers.

Adell tripled in the fifth and scored the tying run on Ward’s sacrifice fly. But, Jake Rogers homered to center in the bottom of the inning. Greene made it 4-2 with a long homer, his 19th, to center in the sixth, and Carpenter added his 13th homer of the season, a two-run shot, later in the inning.

“[Cueto] is a great pitcher and he got us early, but we knew we would get something to hit,� Rogers said.

“I thought Johnny did a pretty good job of controlling them into the fifth, but it got away from him a little,� Washington said. “But Rogers hit a bomb, he left a sinker up to Greene and then Carpenter got him.�

The Angels put left-hander Matt Moore on the 15-day injured list with a left forearm strain and selected the contract of right-hander Ryan Miller from triple-A Salt Lake City. To make room for Miller on the 40-man roster, the Angels moved Mike Trout to the 60-day injured list.