ANAHEIM — It wasn’t his best work, but right-hander George Klassen still gave the Angels a chance to win on Monday night.
Klassen got hit around, didn’t get many swing-and-misses and struggled throwing first-pitch strikes, but still only allowed two earned runs in 5 ⅓ innings pitched in the Angels’ 4-2 loss against the Guardians.
“I thought maybe the command probably wasn't as good as it was in Houston,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. “But I think the maturity is starting to show where a start like that, maybe earlier in the year, might have blown up. And for him to pitch it to the sixth inning, giving us a chance to win, I thought was a good step in the right direction again.”
The 24-year-old rookie was coming off the best start of his young big-league career, pitching seven scoreless innings on only one hit and seven strikeouts in Houston on Tuesday. But Klassen didn’t have the same stuff in this one.
When he’s at his best, Klassen induces swings-and-misses on his upper-90s fastball paired with his sharp slider. His season average whiff rate on each pitch was 26.9% on the fastball and 49.2% on the slider before Monday. In his start against the Guardians, Klassen had a 33% whiff rate on the slider and only a 6% whiff rate on the fastball.
“I had some things working, some things not working,” Klassen said. “So just use what I got and just keep it mild.”
Part of the reason why he didn’t get whiffs is because of his command. Klassen struggled to get his fastball to the top of the zone, often leaving it over the plate.
Another area where his command came into play was getting ahead of hitters. Klassen landed the first pitch for a strike in just 44% of his hitters faced.
Being behind in the counts and spotty command made life difficult for him, as the Guardians hit 11 balls hard out of 18 balls put in play against Klassen. Against the fastball, he allowed seven hard-hit balls out of nine balls put in play.
Klassen ended the evening with six hits and three walks allowed, but he minimized damage. With the bases loaded and only one out in the third, Klassen walked away with just a run allowed on a sacrifice fly and stranded the other two runners.
“Biggest thing is not to let stuff spiral out of control,” Klassen said. “So when something happens, just try to put the foot down and end it there.”
Although he gave the Angels a chance to win, the offense didn’t provide much help, only scoring one run on six hits. The Angels only had four hard-hit balls all game.
They faced left-hander Parker Messick, who is in the conversation for American League Rookie of the Year. He showed why he’s a Rookie of the Year candidate by tossing six innings of one-run ball on three hits, one walk and four strikeouts.
“He was good,” Suzuki said. “He was attacking the zone, he threw strikes. He expanded when he had to expand, but he really kind of had us on our heels the whole night. He just kept attacking.”
The Angels only had four baserunners reach scoring position.