Angels preach optimism as Royals hand them another home loss – Daily News

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ANAHEIM — The injuries, the waiver claims and the callups – from as far away as Double-A – keep coming and yet Angels manager Ron Washington continues to keep his eye on the prize.

Even as the Angels fell, 10-4, in the opener of a four-game series against the Kansas City Royals on Thursday night, following an afternoon when the roster’s revolving door begged for grease on its bearings, Washington was preaching the goal when he first arrived.

While acknowledging a win-loss record below his own expectations, Washington is mapping roads to the playoffs. As the Angels entered the day as one of three American League teams with a winning percentage below .400, Washington remained unbowed.

The loss left them 4-12 at home, the worst start after 16 games in franchise history.

Asked if it was turning into rebuild mode or still “win now,” while trying to get to the playoffs, Washington answered simply by removing the question mark.

“Win now. We’re still looking to get to the playoffs,” Washington said.

The task no doubt will be difficult, with the Angels (14-24) falling Thursday as left-hander Reid Detmers was on the mound. Detmers entered as the only Angels starter who did not have a losing record, although Tyler Anderson sports a rotation-best 2.74 ERA.

“I’ve been thinking a lot,” Detmers said, after he gave up six runs (all earned) in five innings to lose his fourth consecutive start. “Everything feels the same. Body feels the same, pitches feel the same. I don’t know. I have to do a deep dive. I just have to go back and look at some stuff because everything feels the same. The results are not the same.”

To Washington, it was not so much a loss as another lesson learned. He came to the Angels, after all, just as one of baseball’s best hitters (Shohei Ohtani) was departing. And he remains in October mode as Mike Trout is rehabbing an injured left knee, with no timetable on when the three-time American League MVP will return.

“We’re trying to go out every night and win ballgames with the personnel that we have,” Washington said. “Our job is to get that personnel prepared to go out there and do what the game asks them to do. And if we got them prepared, and they can go out there and do what the game asked them to do, who says we can’t win?

“I know you’re looking at our record, and our record doesn’t look like anything, but that’s not how we feel. Inside here, we feel like every night we go out there we can win a ballgame.”

He continues to have faith in Detmers as well.

“I think the last two (starts) he had, it might have been one pitch and it cost him,” Washington said. “At the same time, we weren’t supporting him with any runs. Tonight was just one of those nights when he couldn’t land anything. And when he did make a good pitch, they found a way to put it into play.”

Finding enough offense to do the job will remain a challenge. Trout, Anthony Rendon, Brandon Drury and Luis Rengifo all are on the injured list. The Angels added utility man Luis Guillorme from the Atlanta Braves and recalled Kyren Paris, despite his .091 batting average at Double-A.

On Thursday, the Angels didn’t have their first hit off Royals right-hander Michael Wacha until a Logan O’Hoppe single with two outs in the fourth inning. They had just two hits through six innings.

The Royals took control for their sixth victory in their past nine games with a four-run third inning that included a two-run home run into the Royals’ bullpen from Dairon Blanco and a 442-foot, two-run blast by Vinnie Pasquantino four batters later.

Pasquantino had three RBIs on the night. Blanco and Maikel Garcia each had three hits and two RBIs, while Blanco scored four runs.

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