Angels home woes continue with sweep by Guardians
ANAHEIM — There is no logical reason for the Angels to be such a different team at home, but the inexplicable trend has continued.
The Angels lost 5-4 to the Cleveland Guardians on Sunday, getting swept in the series at Angel Stadium and putting an end to whatever good feelings they had after their encouraging trip.
The Angels (20-33) are now 6-19 at home, while playing .500 baseball on the road. They have won their last three road series. They haven’t won a series at home all season.
After taking two of three in Houston, a place where they traditionally have endured nightmarish visits, the Angels enjoyed an off day and then played a dud of a game on Friday and then lost two one-run games over the weekend.
On Sunday, they lost primarily because their pitchers couldn’t throw strikes.
The Angels issued seven walks and hit two batters. They led directly to all five of the Guardians’ runs, including three in a nightmare sixth inning that snapped a tie.
Starter Reid Detmers gave up a leadoff single in the sixth and was pulled.
Right-hander Adam Cimber, who had stranded all 15 of the runners he inherited this season, lost the strike zone. Cimber got the first out, but then he walked the bottom two hitters in the Cleveland order to load the bases. He hit Tyler Freeman to push in a run, which pushed home a run and ended Cimber’s streak.
Cimber gave up a run of his own when he allowed a single to Andres Gimenez, and then left-hander Matt Moore walked José Ramirez to force home the third run of the inning.
“Just one of those days you feel a little out of synch,” Cimber said. “Timing is a little off. It’s tough. Wanted to get the job done for Reid. It didn’t work out that way.”
The bullpen meltdown meant that Detmers took another loss on a day that he had his best outing in a month.
Detmers was charged with three runs in five-plus innings. He had allowed at least four runs in each of his previous six games, with a 9.09 ERA in 31-2/3 innings.
Detmers still walked four, hit a batter and gave up four hits. Both runs came on a Johnathan Rodriguez double with two outs and the bases loaded in the third.
He rebounded from that, though, to pitch a perfect fourth. He worked around a leadoff single in the fifth.
“There was a lot more positive this week than last several weeks,” Detmers said. “Command has to be better. Other than that, I felt like I had good stuff. Slider was shaky every once in a while. Stuff felt good. I just have to command a little better.”
Detmers said he’s been working to increase the velocity on his slider. He was also using a more compact delivery on Sunday.
Despite the pitching issues, the Angels gave themselves a chance to win.
Matt Thaiss blasted a two-run homer in the fifth to tie the game. Although the bullpen quickly gave back those runs and more, the Angels rallied in the eighth.
With two outs, Nolan Schanuel, Luis Rengifo, Taylor Ward and Kevin Pillar had consecutive hits to push home two runs. Jo Adell, who had kept the Angels close by robbing Ramirez of a would be two-run homer in the top of the inning, then struck out to strand the tying and go-ahead runs on base.
The Angels didn’t get anyone into scoring position against All-Star closer Emanuel Clase in the ninth, falling to 7-19 in games decided by one or two runs. They are 2-13 in those tight games at home.
“I feel good about the way we played against the Cleveland (Guardians),” manager Ron Washington said. “Yesterday we had a chance to win, and today we had a chance to win it. We just gotta find ways to do it.”