ARLINGTON, Texas -- Yusei Kikuchi had his worst game of the season. The Angels' hitters did nothing until it was too late.

So much for the momentum of a tidy victory.

After winning the first game of the series, the Angels lost, 7-3, to the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night in one of their uglier performances of the season.

The game began with a double from Zach Neto, and it was downhill from there. The Angels couldn't get Neto home, and then Kikuchi took the mound for a 38-pitch first inning, allowing three runs.

Kikuchi gave up a season-high six runs. Meanwhile, the Angels managed only three hits - two out of the infield - in eight innings against previously struggling left-hander Patrick Corbin. He had a 9.33 ERA in his previous five starts.

Mike Trout, who got the day off on Monday, ran his hitless streak to 13 at-bats, including nine strikeouts, before getting a single in the ninth. Trout hit his 398th homer on Aug. 6, and he's been stuck on that number since. The 16-game drought is the fourth-longest of his career. It's the longest since he went a career-worst 27 games without a homer in 2015.

Trout said on Sunday that the quest for 400 homers was not on his mind, but his mechanics were off. Interim manager Ray Montgomery said before Tuesday's game that he thought it was possible it was on Trout's mind.

"I don't know how you couldn't (be thinking about it)," Montgomery said. "It's the elephant in the room, right? Those are milestones that very few ever even attain, let alone have a chance to."

The Angels didn't score until they were down by seven runs in the ninth, when Neto hit a homer and then Jo Adell hit his 30th homer of the season, a two-run shot.

The hitters were playing from behind almost all night because Kikuchi couldn't continue what he did last week. After a string of starts in which he struggled to get efficient outs, Kikuchi made some adjustments and pitched seven dominant innings on 88 pitches last week.

It was a different story this time.

In the first inning, the main problem was that Kikuchi walked two of the game's first three hitters.

Adolis Garcia then punched an inside fastball the other way, for a double. With the infield drawn in, Josh Jung was able to get a routine ground-ball through for a hit. Another run scored on a sacrifice fly. It took Kikuchi 38 pitches to get out of the inning.

In the second, another walk came around to score, this time in front of a two-run homer from No. 9 hitter Michael Helman.

Kikuchi hung a curve to Kyle Higashioka, who hit a homer in the fourth inning.

After Kikuchi was done, right-handers Chase Silseth and Sam Bachman - each freshly up from the minors - had an opportunity to pitch. Silseth worked a scoreless fifth. Bachman gave up one run, on a Corey Seager homer, in two innings.

©2023 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit ocregister.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.