Kikuchi delivers bounceback start in loss to Phillies
· Yahoo Sports
ANAHEIM — In his second start back from missing significant time due to shoulder inflammation, left-hander Yusei Kikuchi looked like his old self.
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His return wasn’t pretty. Kikuchi allowed five earned runs in five innings in his first outing since April, but he cleaned things up on Sunday.
Kikuchi tossed seven innings and allowed two earned runs with six strikeouts in the Angels’ 5-2 loss against the Phillies.
"I think my fastball was really good today, especially the fastball command," Kikuchi said through an interpreter. "I was able to pinpoint it, north-south, east-west, where I wanted it. So I think that pitch brought in the results today."
The two runs allowed were both solo home runs to lead off an inning. Other than that, Kikuchi was efficient.
He allowed just four hits and a walk, other than the two solo shots, and only allowed two runners to reach scoring position.
Kikuchi relied on his fastball and slider mostly on Sunday. This year, he started throwing a splitter, and he used it 21% of the time before this outing. But he only threw five of them on Sunday and yielded better results.
One of the issues with the splitter is that it got hit for damage. Hitters held a .516 slugging percentage off his splitter heading into Sunday.
The go-ahead home run Kikuchi allowed in the seventh inning to Edmundo Sosa was a splitter that he left thigh-high.
"The two homers allowed were in the heart of the zone," Kikuchi said through an interpreter, "So, in the times that matter, I need to execute more in a tough spot."
One of the keys to Kikuchi’s success in this one was his ability to attack the zone. He landed 61 out of 92 pitches for strikes.
"Today was a little bit more consistent," Angels manager Kurt Suzuki siad. "I feel like the location on his fastball was better, used some breaking balls really good."
With more pitches in the zone, however, came more hard contact.
The Phillies put 20 balls in play against Kikuchi, with nine of them being hit hard. Kikuchi’s fastball was especially hard-hit, as six of the 10 balls put in play off his fastball were hit hard.
Offensively, it’s been bleak for the Angels.
The offense ranks as one of the worst in baseball this season, but this month has been especially putrid. Heading into play on Sunday, the Angels were hitting .213 with a .598 OPS as a team in August. Both rank as the worst in baseball in that stretch, and the next-worst team is 30 points in OPS ahead of the Angels.
The Angels scored in the first inning, but went quiet again the rest of the way until the ninth. It’s been an issue that’s plagued this team all season.
This year, the Angels have gotten worse the more times they face a starting pitcher each time through the order. They’re the only team in baseball to get worse each time.
Heading into play on Sunday, the Angels were hitting .253 with a .729 OPS the first time through the order, .243 with a .675 OPS the second time and .230 with a .665 OPS the third time around.
The Angels have now lost seven consecutive games.
"We come here to win every single day," Suzuki said. "I mean, obviously, (there's) frustration. At the end of the day, the pitching has been really good, we've been in every single game, pretty much, and had a chance to win every game, so try to look at the positives going forward. And, obviously, try to get better on the stuff that you need to get better at. But, you want to look at the positives, if you become too negative sometimes, it's not going to help."