Taylor Ward Missed a Sign Leading to Huge Mistake in Angels' Loss

There were plenty of opportunities for the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday in a 2-1 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies, but they couldn't find the timely hit to push runs across. Even worse, there was a missed sign from a veteran on the base paths.

Taylor Ward led off the eighth inning with a single and then he was caught trying to steal second base when he wasn't supposed to go. He missed the sign.

“I need to do a better job of just paying attention over there,” Ward said. “The signs I was given, I thought I saw something and it wasn’t that. So just got to tighten that up.”

To make things worse for Ward, he flew out to the warning track to end the game.

“We had some opportunities to put some runs on board, and we’ve got to learn how to do it,” manager Ron Washington said. “We’ve just got to learn how to touch the ball and put it in play. And keep things working that way until our offense starts clicking.”

The Angels were 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position, and they left 11 runners on base. Washington, who should've been upset with the lack of run production, was encouraged that his squad created those opportunities.

“We went out there today and they had one of the best pitchers in baseball out there,” Washington said. “And we battled him and we kept putting ourselves in position to do something good. It just didn’t happen.”

Starting pitcher Patrick Sandoval pitched well enough to win striking out 10 and limiting the Phillies to four hits and two walks. Both earned runs scored in the second inning.

“If we keep playing baseball the way we played the last three days against Philadelphia, we’re gonna do some good things going forward,” Washington said. “We played some good baseball these three days. Just came up on the wrong end of them.”