ANAHEIM — On the night the Angels and a sellout crowd of 44,749 celebrated a new season and new hope, sparked by an encouraging first road trip, their performance was frustratingly familiar.
The Angels lost, 8-6, to the Cleveland Guardians in the home opener, a game marked by walks, a defensive misplay, missed run-scoring opportunities and three – yes, three – injuries.
Second baseman Luis Rengifo left the game in the fourth inning because of left hamstring tightness, the same injury that cost him time in spring training.
Right-hander Ryan Zeferjahn came out of the game after facing two batters in the sixth inning because of right hamstring tightness.
Third baseman Yoán Moncada was removed in the seventh inning with right thumb irritation, which was the same injury that knocked him out of action during the final week of spring training.
On the bright side, Mike Trout hit his second home run in as many games. He’s now had an extra-base hit in three straight games.
And José Soriano showed some encouraging signs that he’s adding a layer to his game, with increased use of a slider that helped him to a career-high nine strikeouts.
Soriano also walked three, and all of them scored, leading to five runs that he allowed. Two of the runs that scored against the bullpen also reached base with walks.
The three runs that the Guardians scored in the sixth and seventh innings to take the lead all came from walks.
Two of those shouldn’t have scored at all, but Moncada couldn’t come up with a two-out grounder to his left. It was charitably ruled a hit.
At the plate, the Angels went 3 for 15 with runners in scoring position. They left 12 runners on base. In the fifth inning, the Angels loaded the bases with one out, but Jo Adell struck out Kevin Newman hit a flyout.
Adell put a charge into the crowd when hit a fly ball to the warning track in the seventh, coming up just short of a game-tying three-run homer.
Meanwhile, Cleveland star José Ramirez had no trouble getting the ball over the fence. He hit three homers, including one on a Soriano slider.
Soriano normally relies heavily on his sinker and his knuckle curve, but in the early going this season he’s been throwing his slider more. Soriano threw his slider just 5.5% of the time last year, and so far this season he’s thrown it 14.1% of the time.
Soriano has gotten whiffs on 10 of the 15 swings at his slider, helping to a career high 17 whiffs on Friday night. He struck out nine, which was a career high.
One of those was a huge cut from Ramirez in the fifth inning. However, Soriano and catcher Logan O’Hoppe opted to go back-to-back with the same pitch. Ramirez was ready for the second one, and he hammered it over the right field fence for a two-run homer.
Ramirez homered on a Soriano sinker in the first inning, and then hit one against Caden Dana in the ninth.
It was the second straight game the Angels allowed one player to hit three homers. St. Louis Cardinals catcher Ivan Herrera did it on Wednesday.
More to come on this story.
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