Astros chill the Angels’ momentum again, 6-3

Four games under .500 entering a four-game series against Houston, it was not a stretch to think the Angels could even their record, a mark that seemed well out of reach two weeks ago, by the time the lowly Astros left town.

The Angels had won 10 of 12 games and were so flush with starting pitchers that Manager Mike Scioscia employed a six-man rotation this week. Houston had the worst record in the American League and the second-worst record in baseball. But those sweep dreams were rudely interrupted by the Astros, who seem to bring out the worst in the Angels.

Left-hander Dallas Keuchel gave up two runs and six hits in seven sharp innings Friday night, and Houston scored three runs each in the fourth and seventh innings for a 6-3 win at Angel Stadium, rising to 18-37 overall, 9-19 against the AL West and 4-3 against the Angels.

BOX SCORE: Astros 6, Angels 3

“That was probably one of the worst games we’ve played in the last two weeks,” Scioscia said. “You have to play a good game every night on this schedule. Those guys have certainly played us tough, and we’re going to have to come out tomorrow and play better.”

The task doesn’t get any easier Saturday night when the Angels face Houston ace Bud Norris, who has yielded one run in 15 innings of two wins over them this season.

One thing that may help: Norris is right-handed. The Angels entered Friday with a .224 average against left-handers, compared to a .274 mark against right-handers, and they provided little resistance to Keuchel, who needed 90 pitches to get through seven innings in which he struck out four and walked none.

“He wasn’t doing anything fancy, but he was doing it well,” Scioscia said. “He had a good sinker at times, he pitched in well and changed speeds, and he made some key pitches to get out of jams.”

Angels right-hander Tommy Hanson, making his first start since May 4 after spending most of the month on the restricted list while grieving the death of his 24-year-old stepbrother, wasn’t nearly as sharp, giving up five runs — four earned — and eight hits in 61/3 innings.

He also overheated after the sixth inning, gesturing angrily from his dugout toward the Houston dugout and appearing to tell an Astros player to shut up.

“That’s a non-issue,” Hanson said. “We’ll leave it at that.”

The Astros broke open the game in the seventh, which featured Ronny Cedeno’s one-out triple off the center-field wall that Mike Trout might have had a play on had he not misjudged the ball, and a throwing error by second baseman Howie Kendrick that allowed a run.

The Angels, who fell 91/2 games behind Texas in the AL West, made some noise in the bottom of the eighth when Erick Aybar hit a solo homer off reliever Paul Clemens to make it 6-3 and they put runners on first and third with two outs. But left-hander Travis Blackley got Josh Hamilton to pop to third, ending the inning.

The Angels took a 2-0 lead in the second on Chris Iannetta’s RBI single and Chris Nelson’s RBI groundout. Astros catcher Jason Castro homered to lead off the fourth, and sacrifice flies by Chris Carter and Matt Dominguez made it 3-2.

“It wasn’t exactly the performance I would have liked, but it was good to get back out there,” Hanson said. “It’s something to build on.”

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