THE ANGELS lost 11-2 to the Astros in Houston on Sunday (Shutterstock).

The long hot summer of the August slide of the Los Angeles Angels continued on Sunday with an 11-2 loss to the Houston Astros. The defeat gave the Astros a sweep of the three-game series and the Halos fifth loss in six games.

Sunday’s setback was punctuated by a seven-run inning by the American League West leaders. The Angels remain in fourth place in the AL West with a 63-70 record. That’s 22.5 games out of first and 13.5 games out in the wild card race.

Jaime Barria (4-7) made a good start for the Orange County team, working 5.1 innings and giving up just two runs on three hits. But with the Angels trailing only 4-1, the roof fell in in the seventh inning.

Taylor Cole worked one disastrous eighth inning, giving up six hits and seven earned runs. He walked two batters and struck out just one as his ERA ballooned to 6.80. Jose Altuve homered, following a four-bagger by Martin Maldonado in the seventh inning.

As for the Angels, they had just four hits, two of which were home runs by Andrelton Simmons (his sixth) and Brian Goodwin (his 13th).

Framber Valdez (4-6) was pretty sharp for the Astros, working six innings and yielding just two hits and one run. He walked five Angels but struck out eight.

After a day off on Monday, the Angels are back in action in Anaheim on Tuesday for the first game of a two-game set against the Texas Rangers.