ANAHEIM, Calif; — In what was already a long day for the Angels after the news that Ron Washington will no longer manage the team for the rest of the season, Friday night’s game felt even longer.

A total of three hours and 11 minutes of play tonight, the Angels (40-41) lost 15-9 to the Washington Nationals. With only one run being ruled unearned, the Angels’ pitching staff gave up a total of 14 runs and 19 hits tonight. Starting pitcher Jose Soriano was responsible for eight of those runs. The other six came from the bullpen.

Tonight the Angels used a total of six different pitchers and their offense did everything in their power to keep them in it having total of 11 hits and six walks. The pitching could never contain the lead when it was all said and done.

“Ususally you win those games. We didn’t make any errors. So credit those guys over there,” Angels manager Ray Montgomery said. “We didn’t get it done. The offense really swung the bats well.”

Earlier this week, the Angels (40-41) swept the Red Sox to become .500 again and fall 1 game out of the wild card, are now 1.5 games back

Soriano, who has been one of the most reliable pitchers in the Angels starting rotation, did not have his best stuff, giving up eight runs through four innings of work. He came into tonight with a 3.39 ERA. That number shot up to 3.99 after a performance he’d like to forget about.

Soriano has pitched a total of 97 innings already this season. His career high came last season with 113 until he was shut down do to fatigue. As he is closing in on the number, he said that he’s felt great physically and tonight was just one of those nights where you pitch bad.

“I feel great physically,” Soriano said. “They’re good hitters too. And they made adjustments and they had good results.”

Soriano who been one of the most reliable pitchers for the Angels this season especially in his last three starts giving up just two runs. Tonight, he did not have his best stuff going through just four innings of work.

Coming into the night, he had an ERA of 3.39, that number has now shot up to 3.99.

“I’m upset obviously because of my performance tonight but I’m just getting ready for the next outing and I feel upset because I wasn’t able to help my team win tonight.”

His night finished with him giving up a total of 9 hits, two walks while having four strikeouts.

After having a 1-2-3 inning first inning, Soriano ran into trouble through the next three, giving up five runs and letting 10 runners reach base before being removed in the fourth inning.

It started in the second inning after a groundball out by Nathaniel Lowe was overturned at first base. In the next at bat, Josh Bell blasted a home run 420 feet towards the left field wall to give the Nationals an early 2-0 lead.

The Nationals’ offense then continued to keep their foot on the gas, scoring three more runs in the fourth and fifth innings.

Jacob Young blasted a 2 run RBI double towards center field in the fourth. The Nationals added one more run to their lead when CJ Abrams hit an RBI single towards right, scoring Young. Trying to extend the play, Abrams instantly regretted it after he was caught in a rundown to end the inning.

Soriano gave up three straight hits to Washington before he was removed from tonight’s game in the fifth inning. After the inning was over, Connor Brogdon looked to put out the first the best he could against the Nationals.

Following the departure of Soriano, the Angels went on and used ___ different pitchers.

As good as the Nationals were against Soriano, the Angels offense was just as good.

The Angels’ offense went on to fight against the Nationals for as long as they could.

Between the second and fifth innings, the Angels scored a total of 9 runs against Washington. The team had a total of three home runs hit between the second and fourth innings. Jo Adell hit one in the second, then Nolan Schanuel had a two-run blast in the third, and Taylor Ward was the final member to join the home run club in the fourth. Both Schanuel and Ward’s were two-run homers. Adell has been hot in the month of June, hitting 11 home runs.

“All through that game they situationally hit. We came back did the same,” Adell said. “Once we got into the later part of the game it kind of slipped away from us a little bit.” 

“But that’s part of it we’ll come back and we’ll get some rest and be ready to go back at it tomorrow.”

Trailing 8-7 going into the bottom half of the fifth, the Angels regained the lead following an error made by Nationals second baseman Luis Garcia Jr. On the play, Adell and LaMonte Wade scored, to give the Angels a 9-8 lead.

But that lead would be short-lived as the Angels’ offense cooled off and did not score another run.

The Nationals regained the lead in the sixth after James Wood hit a sacrifice fly 

The Nationals wouldn’t give up in the next inning when James Wood hit a sacrifice fly to right field to tie the game at 9. Then in the seventh, they took the lead following an RBI double by Brady House.

Washington added one more run in the eighth, then four more in the ninth.