Delabar frustrated as Blue Jays lose 4-3 to Angels

TORONTO (AP) - Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Steve Delabar figured another split-fingered fastball would be good enough to finish off Marc Krauss.

Krauss, however, was thinking the same thing. When he saw the pitch a second time, he didn’t miss it.

Krauss hit a go-ahead two-run double in the seventh inning and the Los Angeles Angels rallied to beat Toronto 4-3 on Wednesday night, handing the slumping Blue Jays their ninth loss in 11 games.

“It was a pretty good pitch,” Delabar said of the one Krauss hit. “But it wasn’t the right pitch.”

Krauss, who had swung and missed a splitter on the previous pitch, said he wondered whether he might see another with two strikes.

“I had just seen it the pitch before so I kind of knew the action it would have,” Krauss said. “Luckily it stayed up just enough.”

Krauss’s key hit came one inning after he replaced slugger Albert Pujols, who left after being hit on the left hand by a pitch from Toronto’s Drew Hutchison.

After the game Angels general manager Jerry Dipoto sent a text saying the X-rays were negative.

“He’s OK,” Dipoto texted. “He’ll be day to day with a bruised hand.”

Hutchison (3-1) lost for the first time in nine starts this season. He allowed four runs and six hits in 6 2-3 innings.

“The offense did their job again and we’re not doing ours,” Hutchison said of Toronto’s struggling staff. “We need to do a better job.”

Toronto, which fell to 2-8 in one-run games, is a season-worst six games below .500.

“We’re just in a little rough patch right now,” manager John Gibbons said. “But these are our guys and we’ll ride it out with them.”

Mike Trout hit a solo homer and Jered Weaver pitched seven innings to win his third straight start. The Angels have won seven of nine and have rallied to win in five of their past six victories.

Weaver (3-4) allowed three runs and four hits. He is 3-0 with a 1.54 ERA in his past three starts after losing four of his first six.

“Command has been there a lot more consistent than it had been,” Weaver said.

Joe Smith worked the eighth and Huston Street finished for his 14th save.

The Blue Jays opened the scoring with a two-out rally in the third. Weaver, who had walked just two batters in his past six starts, began the inning by walking Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion. Weaver looked to have escaped trouble when Russell Martin grounded into a double play but Toronto followed with three straight hits. Chris Colabello doubled, Ezequiel Carrera singled and Danny Valencia capped it with an RBI double.

Matt Joyce drew a bases-loaded walk in the fourth and Trout made it a one-run game with a two-out homer in the fifth.

ACROBAT

Blue Jays C Russell Martin leaped up onto the fence in front of the Angels dugout and then jumped into the dugout while chasing a foul ball in the fifth. He didn’t make the play as the ball bounced off the dugout roof.

STREAKER

Erick Aybar doubled in the ninth to extend his hitting streak to 11 games, tying Pujols for the longest streak by an Angels batter this season.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Angels: Pujols missed 15 games in June and July 2011 after fracturing his left wrist in a collision at first base with Kansas City’s Wilson Betemit.

Blue Jays: OF Michael Saunders has been diagnosed with a bone bruise in his surgically repaired left knee after seeing Dr. James Andrews. Saunders, who had knee surgery in spring training to repair a torn meniscus, is expected to miss 4 to 6 weeks. … SS Jose Reyes (left ribs) will begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Buffalo on Thursday. Gibbons said Reyes could return as early as Monday.

UP NEXT

Angels: RHP Matt Shoemaker (3-3, 5.63) is 3-0 with a 3.60 ERA in four road starts this season. He allowed one run over seven innings to beat Baltimore in his most recent outing, snapping a four-start winless streak.

Blue Jays: RHP R.A. Dickey (1-5, 5.76) has allowed two home runs in four of his past six starts. He matched a season-worst by giving up seven runs in his most recent start, May 15 at Houston.