ANAHEIM — It seemed as though the Angels had it wrapped up in the second inning on Tuesday night. But the Guardians had other plans.
After a blazing start where they scored five runs in the first two innings, the Angels’ offense lost its rhythm, and the pitching staff couldn’t hold on.
The Angels surrendered a 5-0 lead and a 6-5 lead in their 8-6 loss against the Guardians in 10 innings.
"They just chipped away," Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. "They chipped away, and they had good at-bats."
Facing one of the top strikeout pitchers in the game in right-hander Gavin Williams, the Angels fell behind in counts and reached two-strike counts in 10 of their first 11 trips to the plate. But the Angels managed to score five runs on six hits, all with two strikes, in that span.
The Angels chased Williams out of the game after he only recorded four outs in 11 batters faced with a 5-0 lead.
Although the Guardians didn’t tie the game until the fifth, there were signs that the lead wasn’t safe along the way.
Right-hander Walbert Ureña was the opposite of Williams in this one. The strike zone remained elusive to Ureña, as he walked five batters in 3 ⅔ innings of work. Out of 89 pitches thrown, only 50 of them were strikes.
"A lot of arm-side miss, I feel like," Suzuki said. "The ball seemed like it was moving a ton tonight. It's one of those days. The guy's been so good for us. It's so hard to critique and nitpick after a little hiccup right there. But he battled, and he gave us whatever he had."
He got himself out of some jams early on, including a first-and-second with nobody out in the first and a bases-loaded, nobody-out situation in the second.
But the lack of command caught up to Ureña in the fourth. He walked the leadoff batter and then allowed three straight hits to score three runs and end his night.
"I feel like I lost just everything, mechanically and mentally too," Ureña said. "A lot of walks, a lot of pitches, mistakes."
When he says he lost it mentally, Ureña means that he was thinking too much as he continued to walk batters.
The Guardians kept charging, though.
In the fifth, right-hander José Fermin allowed four singles in the inning, which led to two runs scoring to tie the game at 5-5.
Vaughn Grissom hit his second home run of the game to lead off the next inning for his first career multi-home run game. But it was another lead that did not last.
In the eighth, José Ramirez hit his second RBI double of the game to tie the game back up at 6-6.
The Angels thought they had taken the lead in the bottom half of the eighth when Mike Trout drove one to dead-center. It looked as if Trout had a go-ahead two-run homer to put the Angels on top, but Angel Martinez made a spectacular leaping grab to rob Trout and to end the inning.
Then in the 10th, Ramirez hit his third double of the game to score two runs to seal the deal.
Ramirez continues to be a thorn in the Angels’ side. Heading into play on Tuesday, he was slashing .290/.403/.627 with a 1.030 OPS and 21 home runs in 64 games played against the Angels in his career.
The 1.030 OPS is the third-highest against any team in his career, and the highest mark against an American League team. The 21 homers are also the most he has against a non-American League Central team in his career.
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