Angels' Sam Aldegheri hit hard in 3rd major-league start

ANAHEIM, Calif. — At least the fans in Italy who got up in the middle of the night to watch Sam Aldegheri pitch could go back to sleep quickly.

The Angels’ Italian left-hander was knocked out in the third inning of a 5-3 loss to the Houston Astros on Friday night.

Aldegheri is the first major league pitcher born and raised in Italy, and his victory in his previous start raised hopes in his native country that he could have a legitimate big league career.

What happened to him in his third start, however, demonstrated how difficult it is to pitch in the majors.

Aldegheri gave up four runs in two-plus innings. He missed the strike zone often, and he was hit hard when he did throw a strike.

Aldegheri threw 26 balls among his 53 pitches, leading to five walks. He also gave up six hits, including an Alex Bregman two-run homer. Two of the six outs he got had exit velocities of more than 100 mph.

Three starts into his career, the 22-year-old Aldegheri pitched very well once, and he allowed 11 runs (six earned) in the other two games.

This outing could have been worse. Aldegheri left two runners on base when he came out of the game, but rookie right-hander Ryan Miller retired three hitters in a row to strand them.

Left-hander José Suarez then pitched four scoreless innings, striking out five and allowing four singles.

Suarez needed just 55 pitches, and 40 of them were strikes.

After spending more than two months in Triple-A, Suarez has now pitched seven scoreless innings in two games since returning to the majors.

The performances of Miller and Suarez allowed the Angels to get back into the game.

The Angels scored two runs in the third, when Jordyn Adams and Jack López each drew walks to start the inning. Adams scored on a groundout and López came home on a Nolan Schanuel single.

Mickey Moniak cut the deficit to one with a homer in the fourth, turning on a 95 mph fastball from Yusei Kikuchi.

It was Moniak’s 14th homer of the season, but his first against a lefty. Moniak has rarely gotten opportunities to hit against lefties, and he’s produced a .176 batting average in 124 career plate appearances against them.

Overall, though, Moniak has continued to be one of the Angels’ best hitters for more than a month. He’s now hitting .280 with an .884 OPS since Aug. 1.

After Moniak’s homer, though, the last 16 Angels hitters went down in order. The Angels had only three hits.