Game Recap: Guardians 2 – Angels 6

The Guardians head home three games below .500

The Cleveland Guardians faced the Los Angeles Angles in the rubber match of the three game series.

• Cleveland offense started things on a welcomed positive foot. José Ramírez and Carlos Santana drew walks then both stole a base. The successful double steal were the first successful stolen bases for Cleveland. Lane Thomas hit a sac fly to bring home José and put up a run early on.
• Luis Ortiz took charge to start the game, allowing only a single to Mike Trout. Unfortunately, in the bottom of the second, Logan O’Hoppe hit a lead off homer to tie the game. Ortiz couldn’t quite settle down after the home run, allowing two singles that added another run to the scoreboard for the Angels. In the bottom of the third Jorge Soler hit into a fielders choice to Brayan Rocchio who threw home, preventing the run from scoring. Ortiz got out of the third without allowing another run.
• In the top of the fourth, Kyle Manzardo hit his third homer of the season 383 feet to right field to tie the game at 2-2.

• The next inning had the Guardians in a great position to pull ahead. Austin Hedges drew a one-out walk and Brayan Rocchio was hit by pitch to put runners on first and second. A passed ball allowed both runners to advance. Kwan flied out to left for the second out and José was intentionally walked to load the bases. Angels manager Ron Washington came out to seemingly pull the starter Tyler Anderson before facing Carlos Santana, but Anderson was able to convince Washington to keep him in. With a 3-2 count, two-outs, and bases loaded, Carlos Santana struck out swinging on a 80.9 changeup over the plate to retire the side.
• In the bottom of the fifth, the Guardians defense helped out the starter Ortiz sending the top of the order down on a groundout, flyout, and groundout. Brayan Rocchio had a fantastic throw to first baseman Kyle Manzardo to end the inning.

• In the top of the sixth, Lane Thomas got his fifth hit of the season with a single. What should have been a strike-him-out throw-him-out play resulted in Thomas on second with one out. Unfortunately all three batters following Lane were struck out by relief pitcher Ryan Zeferjahn to end the inning and strand another on base.
• In Luis Ortiz’s final inning of work, he allowed another lead off homer. Ortiz finished the game with 7H, 3R, and 3Ks. He didn’t walk a batter and pitched the longest a starting pitcher has gone so far this year.
• Cade Smith came out in the bottom of the seventh to face the 8-9-1 hitters. Smith hit lead off hitter Jo Adell. A fielding error by Brayan Rocchio allowed Tim Anderson to reach first and Jo Adell to reach second base. Taylor Ward hit a sharp single to left to load the bases. A sac fly to center scored Adell and put the Angels up 2-4 with only one out. The Guards walked Mike Trout to reload the bases to face Jorge Soler. Soler hit another sac fly to center to score Anderson. With the Angels up by three and two outs, manager Stephen Vogt pulled Cade Smith and called on Jacob Junis to finish the inning. It took six pitches, but Junis struck out O’Hoppe to retire the side.
• In the bottom of the eighth, the Paul Sewald experiment continued. Sewald allowed a one out homer to center to put the Angels up 6 to 2.
• No hope of a rally blossomed in the top of the ninth. Jhonkensy popped out, Arias struck out, and pinch hitter Nolan Jones flied out to end the game.

The Angels take the series and the Guardians fall to a record of 3-6.

Final Score: CLE 2 – LAA 6

Next game is the Guardians home opener on Tuesday, April 8th. First pitch will be at 4:10PM EDT and Ben Lively has been named the probable pitcher to take the mound for the Guards.