Mired in the longest single-season losing streak in franchise history, the Los Angeles Angels made a change at manager Tuesday afternoon. The team announced Joe Maddon has been relieved of his duties, and third base coach Phil Nevin will serve as interim manager. Maddon's firing comes on the heels of Angels' 12th straight loss Monday night, a 1-0 defeat to the Boston Red Sox at home. 

This is tied for the longest single-season losing streak in franchise history and the second longest losing streak overall, behind a 13-game losing streak spanning the final 12 games in 1988 and the first game in 1989. They were still the California Angels back then.

The Angels are 6-18 since their 21-11 start, and FanGraphs puts their postseason odds at 29.9 percent. They were 81.4 percent as recently as May 15. The Halos are 1 1/2 games behind the sixth and final American League wild card spot, though there are two teams ahead of them in the standings and three teams within 1 1/2 games behind them.

The 12-game losing streak has been a Murphy's Law losing streak in which anything that can go wrong is going wrong. Anthony Rendon and Taylor Ward are out with injuries, meaning the lineup is extremely thin behind Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, and the rotation has come back to Earth following an encouraging April and first half of May. The bullpen has blown several leads too.

The Angels are running a franchise record $188.6 million payroll this season, and with Trout and Rendon signed long-term at big dollars and Ohtani set to become a free agent after next season, the club has little choice but to push ahead and hope to make a run at a postseason spot this year. The organization's sense of urgency is apparent in the decision to replace Maddon.

Hired prior to the 2020 pandemic season, Maddon went 130-148 (.467) in parts of three seasons in what was technically his third stint as Angels manager. He briefly managed the team on an interim basis in 1996 (8-14) and 1999 (19-10).