Defensive mistakes, walks cost Angels in ugly loss to Cubs

Jeff Fletcher, The Orange County Register on Mar 30, 2026

Published in Baseball

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

CHICAGO — The clean games the Los Angeles Angels played to start the season with two victories seem far in the rear-view mirror now.

Since then they’ve dropped three in a row because of sloppy pitching, defense and decision-making, culminating with an ugly 7-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Monday night.

Most of the trouble on this night came from starter Ryan Johnson’s inability to find the strike zone and the defense’s problems converting two plays that should have been made.

While the Angels’ surprisingly explosive offense almost overcame the other issues in the last two games in Houston, this time they managed just five hits. They didn’t score until Yoán Moncada’s two-run homer in the seventh.

Moncada got back the two runs he cost the Angels with the second of their two defensive mistakes.

The first came in the first inning, just when Johnson seemed like he would escape his three-walk inning with only one run scoring. A pop-up fell between second baseman Oswald Peraza and center fielder Mike Trout. Two runs scored on the play.

In the third, the Cubs had runners at second and third with one out. Peraza snagged a line drive and the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong was far enough from third that the Angels should have been able to double him off to end the inning.

Moncada, the third baseman, was playing in, but he had plenty of time to get back to the bag and take the throw. Inexplicably, he didn’t have his foot on the bag. He instead tried to reach down to tag Crow-Armstrong, and he missed.

The next hitter, Moises Ballesteros, yanked a two-run single into right, making it 6-0.

All of the runs were charged to Johnson, who lasted 3 1/3 innings in his first major league start.

The Angels surprisingly put Johnson in the bullpen last year, without him throwing a single pitch in the minors. When he struggled, the Angels sent him down to Class A and made him a starter.

Johnson was good enough in the minors and in spring training to impress Angels management, and he was rewarded with a spot in the rotation.

One of the things the Angels have loved about Johnson is his control. This spring he walked five in 20 2/3 innings.

When he took the mound at Wrigley Field on Monday, he didn’t bring his normal control with him. His first seven pitches were balls, most of them not even competitive pitches.

Johnson ended up walking the bases loaded, with one out. One run scored on a sacrifice fly.

After that, Johnson was seemingly out of the jam, but the pop-up dropped and two more runs scored.

Johnson returned to the fund for a clean second, before things went sideways again in the third, starting with a Nico Hoerner homer.

____