Continuing their offensive woes, the Los Angeles Angels fell once again to the Cleveland Guardians on Wednesday afternoon, suffering a series sweep to close out another disappointing road trip.
The Angels squared up against one of the top arms in the league this season in Parker Messick’s, the Guardians’ newfound ace. That sort of matchup is not ideal for a lineup that has been thoroughly slumping.
A fifth inning two-run shot from Zach Neto, an encouraging sign nonetheless, was all the Angels would put together offensively, as they fell by a score of 4-2.
Messick continued what he has been doing best this season, putting up one efficient start after another and elevating his ERA to a 2.35 tally on the year.
Against the Angels, he held them to just those two runs in 6.2 innings of work, tossing seven strikeouts and walking three. Most importantly, he held them off the basepaths.
Wednesday’s game marked the fifth time in the Angels’ last six contests where the team did not score more than two runs. They have lost each one of those games, ending their road trip with only one win.
On the flip side, the Angels turned to Reid Detmers in the series finale looking to right the ship on the pitching end. Instead, he struggled with early command, despite turning around a near quality start.
A leadoff home run by Angel Martinez set the tone from the jump for the Guardians. Cleveland would find another run on a productive groundout later that inning and tagged another run in the third inning on a Chase DeLauter sacrifice fly.
Despite some baserunning traffic, Detmers prevented the Guardians from doing further damage. Through his first 59 pitches, he only threw 30 of those for strikes, walking two and hitting two batters.
However, they took advantage of the inexperience behind the plate for the Angels, stealing four bases through the first four innings on Angels catcher Sebastián Rivero. At the moment, Logan O’Hoppe is looking to return soon from the injured list as he is in the midst of a rehab assignment with Triple-A Salt Lake.
The Guardians would go on to add insurance in the sixth inning on an RBI single by Daniel Schneeman, putting an end to Detmers’ day as he was unable to find himself out of the jam. Those two runs were all Cleveland would need against the Angels’ slumping bats.
Outside of Neto’s long ball, the Angels would only muster three hits, with the homer being their only extra-base hit of the game.
The Angels will look to right the ship in the Freeway Series this weekend, taking on a Los Angeles Dodgers team that has been slumping over the last week. The Dodgers have lost four straight games by at least four runs, the first time that has happened for the franchise in over 90 years.