Angels’ bullplen implodes in loss to Cardinals

ANAHEIM — The Angels have offered nary a response during a “Show Me State” takeover that has only added to the misery.

A bullpen meltdown on Monday night led to a 10-5 defeat in a series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals that came after Missouri’s other club stormed through Orange County. The Kansas City Royals left town Sunday after winning three of four games, with the Angels now 6-18 since they moved to .500 on April 17.

With the Cardinals’ eight-run rally in the seventh inning, the Angels’ bullpen became one of three in the major leagues with an ERA over 5.00. The late innings have been far from a relief.

And it came on a night when the Angels, who fell to 15-27 overall and 5-15 at home, really were showing something to their opponent.

Kyren Paris showed up in a four-run fourth inning with an RBI double and Kevin Pillar showed out with a home run.

Right-hander Jose Soriano also put it all on display by pitching into the sixth inning without giving up a run. Getting his first chance to take ownership of a starting role in the major leagues, Soriano has not given up a run in two of his last three starts.

In Paris and Pillar, the Angels got a bit of much-needed production from a pair of players who weren’t even in the plans until two weeks ago. Pillar was signed when Mike Trout went down with a meniscus injury and Paris was called up from Double-A when Brandon Drury came away with a hamstring injury last week.

With dwindling options to choose from, the Angels gave Paris a chance after he was hitting a mere .091 at Rocket City. His RBI double was his second hit for the Angels in five games and his first extra-base hit in 20 major league games over the past two seasons.

Pillar continued to give the Angels production after he was designated for assignment by the Chicago White Sox and then signed by the Angels on April 30. Pillar’s home run Monday was his third in eight games with his new team, including a two-homer game last week at Pittsburgh.

Pillar, a West Hills native, has arrived to rave reviews from the guy he is helping to replace, for the time being.

“Bringing in (Pillar), a guy like that who has been around a long time, great guy in the clubhouse, it’s been great,” Trout said last week.

The Angels’ 13 home runs from their center fielders (Trout and Pillar) are the most from the position in the major leagues.

Yet the positives turned sour so quickly. After side-arming Angels right-hander Adam Cimber preserved Soriano’s scoreless outing by getting Paul Goldschmidt to hit into a 4-6-3 double play in the sixth inning, the seventh was a disaster.

The Cardinals started their offensive eruption with a leadoff home run in the seventh from Nolan Arenado. Next came four consecutive singles to pull the Cardinals to within 4-2. Matt Carpenter’s single off Matt Moore tied it and Goldschmidt gave St. Louis a 5-4 lead when he was hit by a Luis Garcia pitch.

Arenado’s second at-bat of the inning resulted in a strikeout before Nolan Gorman had an RBI single and Ivan Herrera added a two-run single for an 8-4 advantage.

All eight Cardinals runs were earned, with two more unearned runs in the ninth, as the Angels’ bullpen ERA went from 4.87 to 5.23. Only the Texas Rangers’ bullpen has a worse ERA at 5.35.

Pillar was at it again in the eighth inning with a run-scoring single for a three-RBI night, but by then, there was hardly anything left to show.

More to come on this story.