Hector Santiago has early exit in Angels’ 6-2 loss to the Indians

Mike Scioscia has a stock phrase for times like these, when he refuses to use the grueling travel demands of a 162-game season as an excuse.

“The schedule,” the Angels manager likes to say, “keeps coming.”

The schedule came again Friday night, showing no mercy for a bleary eyed Angels team that, after getting swept in a four-game series in Yankee Stadium, flew all night from New York to Los Angeles, landing at LAX at 2:45 a.m. Friday and reaching Angel Stadium at 3:45 a.m.

Waiting for them Friday night was first-place Cleveland and 2014 American League Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber, who threw six scoreless, two-hit innings against Kansas City in his last start.

The result was almost predictable. Kluber went the distance, allowing two runs and three hits, striking out seven and walking one, and the Indians knocked out Hector Santiago in the second inning of a 6-2 victory.

The Angels have lost five straight and 11 of 16 to fall nine games under .500 for the first time since Sept. 9, 2013. They’re 11 games behind Texas in the AL West and would have to go 64-37 the rest of the way to reach 90 victories.

With a rotation battered by injuries and a lineup thinning beyond Yunel Escobar, Kole Calhoun, Mike Trout and Albert Pujols, the Angels are fading badly.

“We need to play better,” Scioscia said. “We need to do some of things we’ve done periodically during the season on a more consistent basis.”

Effort is not an issue, as Calhoun showed in the third inning Friday, when he raced to the right-field line and made a diving catch of Yan Gomes’ fly ball.

Nor is the offense on many nights; the Angels scored seven runs or more in 12 of 27 games before Friday.

Starting pitching is the biggest problem. With Garrett Richards and Andrew Heaney lost to elbow injuries, the rotation is 16-26 and ranks 12th in the league with a 4.88 earned run average.

The Angels sent Santiago home from New York on an earlier flight Thursday to keep him fresh, but the left-hander still got clobbered, giving up six runs — five earned — and seven hits in 11/3 innings.

Santiago was tagged for four runs — three earned — and four hits, including back-to-back RBI doubles by Mike Napoli and Carlos Santana, in a 39-pitch first and two runs and three hits before being pulled in the second.

Santiago was an All-Star in 2015, with a 2.33 ERA at the break, but in 28 starts since, he has a 5.56 ERA. He was 3-2 with a 3.42 ERA on May 15 but is 0-2 with a 12.18 ERA in his last five starts, allowing 23 runs and 24 hits (seven homers) in 17 innings. Santiago is 3-4 with a 5.64 ERA on the season.

The Angels sent Santiago to triple A when he struggled in 2014. With so many injuries, they have no choice but to continue to send him to the mound.

“It seems like it’s one extreme to another. We can absorb the occasional tough start, where you only get into the fifth or sixth inning, but too many times with Hector, we’re looking at the second inning.”

Follow Mike DiGiovanna on Twitter: @MikeDiGiovanna