Angels awaken too late in loss

The Angels flirted with a pair of historic extremes Friday night, going from what would have been the most lopsided home-opening loss in franchise history to what was beginning to have the makings of the biggest comeback in team history.

They settled for something in between, a thoroughly unsatisfying 11-6 loss to the Texas Rangers in which the Angels avoided a landmark loss but fell far short of a miracle comeback.

Not that they didn’t put a Texas-sized scare into the Rangers.

Before what was left of an Angel Stadium crowd of 43,838, the Angels chopped an 11-run deficit to five with a six-run ninth that featured Howie Kendrick’s two-run triple, Gary Matthews Jr.’s run-scoring double and Reggie Willits’ two-run double.

Texas Manager Ron Washington used three relievers in the inning and had closer C.J. Wilson warming up when right fielder Marlon Byrd caught Garret Anderson’s high fly ball at the wall with two runners on to end the game.

“We made it interesting at the end,” Manager Mike Scioscia said, “but we were too far behind to have an impact.”

The Rangers built a huge lead on Ben Broussard’s fourth-inning grand slam off Angels starter Dustin Moseley and five runs off reliever Rich Thompson in the eighth, a rally that featured two-run doubles by Ian Kinsler and Josh Hamilton.

Angels starters combined to go 3-1 with a 1.91 earned-run average in the first four games, but Moseley, who was charged with five runs and six hits in five innings, brought that streak of four straight quality starts to an end.

One pitch, a low breaking ball that Broussard drove into the right-field seats for a 5-0 lead, did the most damage. Moseley wished he would have shook off catcher Mike Napoli.

“I had thrown maybe two breaking balls in the game,” Moseley said. “Going to your third-best pitch in that situation is just not very smart.”

Texas left-hander Kason Gabbard shut out the Angels for seven innings, giving up seven hits, striking out four and inducing three double-play grounders, but there was nothing unusual about that.

The Angels have a history of struggling against left-handers, especially crafty ones like Jamie Moyer and Kenny Rogers, who change speeds and don’t throw very hard. Not once did Gabbard, acquired from Boston for Eric Gagne last July, break 90 mph on the stadium radar gun, but he used a nice blend of sinkers, curves and changeups to subdue the Angels.

The Angels went 19-21 against left-handed starters last season and 75-47 against right-handed starters.

Not surprisingly, their ninth-inning rally came off reliever Dustin Nippert, a right-hander.

“We seem to have some trouble with lefties who move a sinker around and change speeds,” Scioscia said. “That’s what he was doing tonight.”

Scioscia didn’t have one of his better nights either.

The one reserve he started because the Angels were facing a left-hander, Robb Quinlan, was given the green light on a 2-and-0 pitch with the bases loaded in the fourth and grounded into an inning-ending double play.

And the one left-handed hitter Scioscia kept in the lineup, Anderson, was hitless in three at-bats against Gabbard.

Scioscia had an attractive right-handed option in Juan Rivera, but he opted to start Anderson at DH.

“There’s a challenge here to get a lot of guys on our bench some at-bats, and Juan is one of them,” Scioscia said. “Q is one of them. We have to get Reggie [Willits] in there to find a role. We’re going to take it one step at a time.”

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com