The Los Angels Angels got a fine start from Walbert Urena and more home run robbery by Jo Adell, but it wasn't enough.
The Los Angeles Angels lost their second straight game to the Cleveland Guardians, 3-2, as they wasted another fine start by Walbert Urena with the offense falling just short in their comeback effort.
This was a pitchers duel from start to finish, but the Guardians got on the board first against Urena. Angel Martinez did the honors with a solo home run by lofting a Urena changeup to right to make it 1-0.
Slade Cecconi threw four shutout innings for Cleveland, and he was replaced by Hunter Gaddis as the Angels did nothing through the first five. The Guardians added their second run in the fifth, but they had to work to do it.
Their rally started with a walk to Daniel Schneeman, and it looked like the Guardians would add two more until right fielder Jo Adell did his latest version of home run robbery, stealing another shot by Martinez at the wall in right. That out became a sacrifice fly that got Schneeman to third, and a groundout by Patrick Bailey got the run home to make it 2-0.
Urena left after five innings having posted a good start, although he wasn’t as sharp as he’s been in his other successful starts. He ended up throwing 91 pitches while giving up three hits and getting four strikeouts, with his lone walk coming home to score Cleveland’s second run.
The Angels finally got on the board in the sixth with a triple by Oswald Peraza followed by a sacrifice fly by Adell, with the run scoring off reliever Tim Herrin.
That cut the lead to 2-1, but Cleveland upped the lead to 3-1 in the seventh against reliever Drew Pomeranz. Rhys Hoskins walked and Martinez singled, with a throwing error by Peraza gettin Hoskins to third, after which a sacrifice fly by Brayan Roccchio made it 3-1.
The back-and-forth battle continued in the eighth on a Vaughn Grissom homer for the Angels off reliever Franco Aleman to make it 3-2, but that was as close as the Halos were able to get. Cleveland closer Cade Smith came in early in the eighth to get the final out of the inning and pitch a scoreless ninth as the Angels wound up scoring just a pair of runs.
The Halos did end up with eight hits in this one, but they also struck out 13 times to kill multiple potential rallies. Urena took a tough loss to drop to 1-4, with Gaddis getting the win as Smith earned his 12th save. The Angels will get one more shot against the Guardians tomorrow afternoon, with Reid Detmers going against Parker Messick for Cleveland.