TAMPA, Fla. — The Angels did all they could to lose on Tuesday night, but they ended up winning anyway.

A rough relief outing from Ben Joyce and a bad defensive moment from Mike Trout both seemed like they would sink the Angels, but their teammates picked them up in a 4-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.

Pinch-hitter Logan O’Hoppe singled with one out in the ninth. He went to second base on a ground ball and pinch-runner Kevin Newman scored the go-ahead run on a Luis Rengifo bloop single.

Closer Kenley Jansen then worked in and out of a seemingly impossible jam in the bottom of the ninth to help the Angels (7-3) to their third straight victory.

“The biggest thing that happened out there tonight was what Jansen did,” manager Ron Washington said. “And it was something that I’ve seen before. It was something that I’ve been a part of before, on the opposite side when he pulled that off. I sort of felt like we were in a good place when he was out there, but I didn’t want to speak it until it was over. But tonight was definitely a great, great team win.”

The Rays had runners at the corners with no outs in the ninth. After a stolen base, they had also had the winning run in scoring position. But Jansen induced a grounder to third, and Rengifo threw home for an out. Jansen then struck out the next two hitters to finish off the 450th save of his career.

“That was phenomenal,” catcher Travis d’Arnaud said of Jansen’s performance. “For him to be first and third there, with no outs, and get three huge outs there, that was sick.”

Jansen said it helps to have more than a decade of experience closing big league games to persevere through a moment like that.

“Just never give in,” Jansen said. “Just continue to pitch and slow the game down, and control the pace. And that’s what I did. It helped me get out of this one.”

It wasn’t quite the textbook victory they had planned when a Kyren Paris two-run homer and scoreless work from starter Kyle Hendricks (five innings) and reliever Ryan Zeferjahn (one inning) had built a 2-0 lead for Joyce in the seventh.

Washington had been using Joyce in the eighth, but the Rays had the middle of the order due in the seventh.

Joyce gave up a home run to Junior Caminero, a single to Jonathan Aranda, a double to Christopher Morel and then a triple to Kameron Misner. It took 14 pitches for a two-run lead to become a one-run deficit. Joyce’s four-seam fastball averaged 99.3 mph, which was down from his average of 101.4. His sinker averaged 93.5 mph, down from 95.3 mph.

The decreased velocity raised a question about Joyce’s health, and he was not available after the game to address it. Washington said there was nothing physically wrong with him.

“He was fine,” Washington said. “He’s human. Tonight he just didn’t have it. And I thought he would find it after he gave up the home run and then gave up the single, but it just didn’t happen.”

When Joyce left, the Rays had a runner at third and no outs, but the Angels escaped that inning without the insurance run scoring. Shortstop Tim Anderson made the biggest play of the inning, with a diving stop.

The Angels got that run back in the top of the eighth, on a d’Arnaud groundout.

The Angels then escaped again to keep the score tied.

José Caballero led off the eighth with a fly ball into right field that Trout lost in the lights. Hurricane damage to Tropicana Field forced the Rays to play this season at Steinbrenner Field, which is a spring training and minor league park without major league-quality lighting. Trout said when the ball goes above the lights, you can’t see it. And he had to take his eyes off of it to look for the wall, which is just a few feet past the foul line.

The ball dropped behind him and Caballero got a triple. This time it was left-hander Brock Burke who escaped, with two strikeouts (one of which was courtesy of a nice frame job by d’Arnaud) and a fly ball to the warning track.

The Angels then pushed home the go-ahead run, before Jansen escaped the jam in the bottom of the inning.

“Run on third nobody out; what’s the run expectancy, like one and a quarter?” d’Arnaud said. “For us to put up zero runs in all those situations is tremendous, especially moving forward, especially with the young team, especially with a bullpen, besides Kenley, that doesn’t have as much experience as other bullpens.

“For them to step up in that situation against against a great Tampa Bay team that can pitch well, hit well, do all the right things. For them to step up in those moments and get the big outs, I think was a huge momentum swing for a bullpen.”

It was a similar game to last Tuesday’s in St. Louis. In that game, the Angels surrendered leads in the eighth and 10th innings, only to hang on and win in the 11th. That night was an encouraging sign that the Angels might finally have learned how to win the type of close games they lost so much last year, and this game was another.

“We’re in ’25 and we prepared through ’24 for ’25,” Washington said. “We get the benefit of all the work we’ve been doing in ’24 to make it into ’25. All of it is connected. Sometimes you got to go backwards before you can go forward.”