Anthony Rendon exits early and Angels can’t overcome poor start against Reds

CINCINNATI — Saturday night could not have started any worse for the Angels as a chaotic first inning saw Anthony Rendon removed from the game with a hamstring injury, an out removed from the scoreboard due to a ground rule and Patrick Sandoval’s misplaced fastball removed from the field of play on a bases-clearing swing.

Tyler Stephenson’s first career grand slam erased an early Angels lead and propelled the Cincinnati Reds to a 7-5 victory before a crowd of 27,343 at Great American Ball Park.

“I’m pissed off at myself, letting the team down,” said Sandoval (1-3), who struggled with his command all night, allowing seven runs on six hits and five walks in four-plus innings.

“I just couldn’t find the zone with the fastball, and you run into trouble when that happens,” he added. “I shouldn’t have thrown that pitch, giving him back-to-back fast balls. It was a quality pitch, fastball up, top rail of the zone. He just happened to get to it and hit it the opposite way.”

Sandoval refused to blame a lengthy delay two batters into the game for his struggles. He initially appeared to have caught a break after first baseman Nolan Schanuel played the carom on Luis Rengifo’s wild throw and cut down Cincinnati’s Spencer Steer trying for second.

But because the ball ricocheted off the netting in front of the photographers’ well, which is out of play, the umpires convened and awarded Steer second base.

A double and two walks later, Stephenson hit his second home run of the series and third of the season into the right field bullpen for a 5-2 lead.

“Sandy wasn’t at his very best as far as his command and stuff goes tonight,” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “We come out and put two runs on the board, and then we make a mistake, and we just couldn’t recover from that mistake.”

Compounding Sandoval’s frustration from his performance was his concern for Rendon following the hamstring injury.

“It’s gut-wrenching,” Sandoval said. “That guy means a lot to this team. To see him work back from all these injuries and the work ethic he has, the passion for the game that he has and the passion he has for being a leader for this team and helping everyone around here, it’s gut-wrenching.”

Asked how the hamstring was feeling after getting treatment postgame, Rendon said “not great.”

“Frustration, anger, mad – any of those adjectives you want to use,” he added.

Rendon said he had no idea what kind of timeline he is looking at for recovery.

“The majority of my stuff my whole career has been quads,” he said. “I’ve never really dealt with a hamstring.”

Rendon pulled up lame while beating out a game-opening infield single, and he left after a short consultation with trainers. Zach Neto, who was supposed to get the night off to “kick back” in the midst of a 3-for-22 stretch, pinch ran for Rendon and scored ahead of Mike Trout on Miguel Sano’s double off Cincinnati starter Graham Ashcraft to give the Angels a 2-0 lead.

But Cincinnati’s five-run first erased that and left the Angels playing catchup the rest of the night.

Sandoval allowed the first three runners to reach in the fifth to increase the deficit to 6-2 and end his night.

“I feel like crap letting the team down,” he said. “They’re fighting and clawing, getting their way back and I’m digging a deeper hole for them.”

Sano added a two-run homer off Ashcraft (3-1) in the sixth to get the Angels within 7-4, and Rengifo’s RBI groundout later in the inning closed the gap to 7-5.

But that’s as close as they would get as Reds relievers Nick Martinez and Alexis Diaz combined for three shutout innings to end the game, with Diaz securing his third save.

Angels relievers Jose Suarez, Hunter Strickland and Luis Garcia threw five innings of scoreless relief, but the Reds got all they would need off Sandoval.

The loss dropped the Angels (9-12) to 3-6 on their 10-game road trip, which concludes Sunday at 10:40 a.m. PT as they try to avoid a Cincinnati sweep.