Just after Ohtani’s solo shot cleared the fence in the top of the fifth, bringing the Angels within 7-2, Nevin was ejected for arguing about something that had happened in the previous inning. Austin Warren believed he had struck out Austin Riley to end the inning, but first base umpire John Bacon ruled that Riley didn’t swing. Riley hit a two-run homer on the next pitch.

“When things are rough like this, little things get to you,” Nevin said. “Austin pitched his butt off and he was out of that inning, in my opinion. That changes it.”

Instead, the Angels were hopelessly out of the game already, having been buried in a five-run hole because of a rough three innings for Sandoval.

“They hit the mistakes hard and they were also putting balls in play that I was executing,” Sandoval said. “I feel like I was ahead a pretty good amount this outing. They were still putting the bat on the ball and making it tough.”

Sandoval needed 80 pitches to get through three innings.

“With Sandy we’ve talked about finishing off hitters a little quicker,” Nevin said. “He’s going to rely on a lot of contact, soft contact, and and for the defense to play well behind him. We haven’t been that good behind him lately.”

The defense did help him avoid an even worse third inning, though. Sandoval gave up four more singles, accounting for three runs. Right fielder Dillon Thomas made a diving catch in right for the second out. Left fielder Taylor Ward threw out Orlando Arcia trying to go to third for the final out.

One of the positives on the night for the Angels was the performance of Walsh, who doubled twice and singled. Walsh also doubled in his final at-bat on Friday night. A Georgia native playing his first big league games in Atlanta, Walsh came into the series in a 3-for-40 slump.

“He was aggressive,” Nevin said. “That’s one thing that’s been discussed with him. There’s a lot of mechanical things going on and you’re trying to fix things, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to go up and you’ve got to be aggressive at balls in the zone. I thought he swung the bat really well today.”