ANAHEIM, Calif. – Plenty went wrong for the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday night: A couple of misplayed bunts, a pair of poor throws to second base by pitchers trying to start double plays, and two ill-advised pitches over the plate that resulted in home runs by Mike Trout and Mark Trumbo.
It all added up to a 6-2 loss to the Los Angeles Angels and left-hander C.J. Wilson, who didn't need any help in an eight-inning performance.
"It was one of those games where they executed and we didn't, so they won. That's it," Blue Jays right fielder Jose Bautista said. "There's no need to overanalyze it. It's not that big of a deal. We've got a game tomorrow and we're going try to take this series and move on."
Bautista's tying single in the fourth effectively ending a streak of four complete-game shutouts in four nights on the Angel Stadium mound — including Jered Weaver's no-hitter against Minnesota on Wednesday.
Kyle Drabek (2-3) was charged with five runs, eight hits and five walks in five-plus innings after back-to-back shutouts by Toronto teammates Brandon Morrow and Henderson Alvarez.
"In the first two games of the series we just couldn't get anything going. But tonight we just had great at-bats all night," said Angels manager Mike Scioscia, who fielded a lineup without slumping slugger Albert Pujols for the first time this season. "We made them work for every out, we took our walks, passed the baton and put together a good offensive night."
Wilson (4-2) allowed two runs and six hits, including Adam Lind's leadoff homer in the seventh, and struck out nine. The 2011 All-Star had his longest outing in six starts with the Angels, who signed him to a five-year, $77.5 million contract as a free agent in December.
"He was spotting his fastball and the cutter," Bautista said. "That was working for him today and he stuck with it all game long and we couldn't make enough adjustments."
Lind's second homer of the season extended the Blue Jays' streak to nine straight games with at least one.
"Obviously, they've got a lot of power," Wilson said. "It's like you think you have them under your thumb, and then all of a sudden, you make one mistake and — boom — home run. Sometimes you have to go for the corners and maybe take the risk of throwing a ball, instead of coming right down the middle. Obviously, you want to throw strikes, but you don't want to throw meatballs — because the meatball I threw tonight was a home run."
Blue Jays third baseman Brett Lawrie found himself in no man's land on bunts by Bobby Wilson in the sixth inning and Alberto Callaspo in the eighth.
On the first one, Lawrie raced back to the bag while the ball skidded between him and Drabek, loading the bases and bringing in reliever Jason Frasor. On the second one, Lawrie headed back to the bag again as Callaspo's bunt rolled slowly up the line for a hit that put runners at the corners and led to Kendrys Morales' RBI single.
Frasor tried to turn Callaspo's sixth-inning comebacker into a double play, but threw the ball past second base. Luis Perez did the same thing on a ball hit to him by Howie Kendrick.
"That's happened to me before, too, so I know what it's like," Wilson said. "You're in that mode of throwing the ball as hard as you can to the plate. Then all of a sudden, you get a little tweener bouncer and you're throwing to like a different-sized target that's bigger and in motion — as opposed to the catcher, who's just sitting there. So sometimes, the situation gets you sped up a little bit, and you've got to chuck it as hard as you can right at the guy and hope it hits him in the glove."
When Trout came to bat in the fifth with the score tied 1-all, a blond teenager appeared on the video board, holding up a placard asking the 20-year-old rookie to accompany her to her prom. Two pitches later, Trout hit his first home run in seven games and 25 at-bats since his recall from Triple-A Salt Lake. The video crew again showed the teenager with the sign, while Trout circled the bases on his sixth big league homer.
"Somebody just came over to me and said it was on the big screen. I didn't even see it," Trout said. "That's a first for me. It's awesome that the fans are out there cheering for me."
NOTES: The Blue Jays' unorthodox shift against the switch-hitting Morales worked to perfection in the third, when Lawrie robbed him of a hit with a diving catch of his line drive — in short right field. ... Toronto LF Rajai Davis was back in the lineup after missing two games because of a strained hip flexor on his left side. ... After five consecutive games on the Angels' homestand that were played in under 2½ hours — including one that took 2:11 and two that lasted 2:10 — this one was over in 2 hours, 54 minutes.
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