SAN DIEGO — The Angels’ bats went silent again.

After a couple of weeks of improving offense, the Angels lost, 5-1, to the Padres on Wednesday night, dropping the rubber game of the series.

The Angels had scored at least four runs in seven of their previous 10 times, but this game brought back memories of the recent three-week stretch when their offense could barely muster a whimper.

The Angels had four hits, including Taylor Ward’s 10th home run of the season.

Coming into the game, the Angels seemed to have a chance at a good night against Padres right-hander Randy Vasquez. Even though he had a respectable 3.76 ERA, Vasquez had walked 25 hitters and struck out 18 in 38 1/3 innings. A pitcher should typically have two or three times as many strikeouts as walks.

In six innings against Vasquez, the Angels struck out five times and walked once. The lack of walks was more about Vasquez having better control than the Angels lacking discipline. Their 30% rate of swings at pitches out of the zone was only slightly worse than the major league average of 28%.

The Angels blew a good scoring opportunity in the third, when Matthew Lugo led off with a double and went to third on a fly ball. Zach Neto hit a pop-up, Nolan Schanuel walked and Yoán Moncada struck out.

The Angels (17-25) didn’t get another runner into scoring position.

The poor production at the plate wasted a solid night from the starter Kyle Hendricks, who gave up three runs — all on one pitch — in six innings.

In the first inning, Hendricks gave up back-to-back one-out singles to Luis Arraez and Manny Machado. An out later, Xander Bogaerts fought him through a long at-bat, fouling off three straight two-strike pitches. On the ninth pitch of the battle, Hendricks threw changeup over the middle of the plate, and Bogaerts drilled it over the left field fence, for a three-run homer.

After that, though, Hendricks clamped down on the Padres. He gave up just two hits and a walk through the next five innings. The Padres did not have two baserunners in any of those innings.

Hendricks was effective at getting soft contact. The Padres didn’t swing at miss at one of his pitches until his 65th pitch of the night, in the fifth inning. That was one of two whiffs in a strikeout of No. 9 hitter Martin Maldonado.

Left-hander Reid Detmers was the first pitcher out of the bullpen, and he had a second straight scoreless outing after his disastrous three-outing stretch last week.

Joyce done for year

The Angels’ hope for getting Ben Joyce back this season is officially gone.

The hard-throwing right-hander underwent season-ending shoulder surgery on Wednesday, the team announced. The Angels declined to provide further information on the precise nature of the surgery.

“It sucks,” said catcher Logan O’Hoppe, who is living with Joyce this season. “I don’t know if there’s any better way to put it, other than it sucks. He takes care of his body better than anybody. He works harder than anybody. He cares more than anybody in this room. So to see that happen is pretty heartbreaking, not only for him, but I know selfishly being close to this family too. It sucks, but he’ll come back better because of it. But it just sucks that he has to lose so much time in order to do it.”

Joyce, 24, has dealt with injuries throughout his brief professional career, a natural consequence of throwing a fastball that has reached 105 mph.

Joyce was on the injured list because of elbow neuritis in 2023 and right shoulder inflammation in 2024. He also had Tommy John surgery while in college at the University of Tennessee.

Joyce appeared in five games this season, with his velocity dipping during an outing on April 8 in Tampa. Joyce said at the time he didn’t believe he was injured, but a subsequent MRI exam showed inflammation in his shoulder.

Joyce tried to throw twice since then, and each time felt he hadn’t improved, so the Angels sent him to see a specialist this week.

There was no other announcement about what type of surgery was performed. The Angels have made a practice of limiting information on injuries, citing player privacy.