CLEVELAND — Whether they’re playing the Indians or Guardians, the Angels don’t seem to enjoy their trips to Cleveland.
Ryan Tepera gave up a tie-breaking, two-run homer to José Ramirez in the eighth inning of the Angels’ 5-3 loss to the Guardians on Wednesday.
The Angels were swept in the three-game series, dropping their record to 1-20 in their trips to Progressive Field since 2015. The lone victory – in 2018 – was sandwiched between 10-game losing streaks. The Angels have had four managers and the Guardians have had two names in that time.
This loss dropped the Angels to 61-82, ensuring their seventh consecutive losing season. No big-league team has a longer active streak of losing seasons.
For much of the afternoon, the Angels seemed poised to delay their inevitable 82nd loss and snap their nine-game losing streak in Cleveland.
Mickey Moniak put the Angels on top with a two-run homer in the third. Moniak doubled and scored on a Mike Trout single in the fifth to increase the lead to 3-1. Moniak has three homers in 36 at-bats with the Angels.
The Angels still had a 3-2 lead in the seventh inning, but the Guardians tied it when Tyler Freeman doubled home a run against Jimmy Herget.
In the eighth, Tepera gave up a single to Amed Rosario and hung a slider that Ramirez blasted over the right-field fence.
“You’ve got a veteran pitcher on the mound, and he just missed his spot,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said. “I trust Tep. That’s why he was out there.”
Angels starter Patrick Sandoval was charged with two runs in 5 1/3 innings. He worked around seven hits because he didn’t walk anyone. It was the second time in his career that he’d pitched at least five innings without a walk.
Oscar Gonzalez hit a homer in the second. In the fifth, Sandoval gave up singles to the first two hitters of the inning, but the Angels turned a double play to hold the Guardians to one run in the inning.
“I felt good,” Sandoval said. “Threw my stuff through the zone. Let them ball put the ball in play and make our defense make plays.”
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Sandoval was pulled after he gave up a pair of one-out singles in the sixth. Herget entered and escaped when the Angels turned a double play, preserving the 3-2 lead.
The Angels couldn’t hold the lead through the seventh, though, and the offense was unable to do any more damage. Shohei Ohtani doubled in the eighth and Luis Rengifo doubled in the ninth, but both were stranded.
“We’ve got to score more runs later,” Nevin said. “I thought they did a good job pitching us. We hit some balls right at people. Just didn’t go our way.”